Climate Change & CHT, Bangladesh

8/3/2019 Climate Change & CHT, Bangladesh

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CLIMATE CHANGE IN CHT &VULNERABILITY FACING BY THE

ENVIRONMENT (HILL PEOPLE,

NATURE & WILDLIFE) WITH ANOBSERVATION ON ADAPTATION

& MITIGATION PROCESSPranay Chakma



CHARACTERISTICS

The CHT covers an area of

13,190 square kilometers. Constitutes about 10 per cent

of the total land area of

Bangladesh.

More than 90 per cent of thearea is covered by hills with

only 129,000 hectares (ha) of

cropped land.

About 87 per cent of the landis covered with forest totaling

11,475 sq. kms mostly

owned by the government.

(Source: Dasgupta and Ahmed, 1998)



HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY OF

HUMAN INTERVENTION ON

THE CHT



TRADITIONAL JUM/ SHIFTING

CULTIVATIONTraditional method- emerged around 300-400

years ago (F. Buckanan: EIC & Lewin 1869:28).

Cultivation on the steep slopes of the high

hills.

In North-Eastern Indian Himalayas, Jum is a

predominant land use system supporting 1.6

m hill people over an area of 426 m hactor (Partap:1998)..

From Jum fields CHT loss mother soil would

be 4.2 m tons per annum (ADB:1978).



Impacts of Jum

A study by Soil Conservation and Water ManagementCentre found soil loss during rainy season as follows:

gentle slope-41.3 MT/h, moderate slope-35.4 MT/h and

steep slope-42.1 MT/h (Rahman, 2001).

The consequent erosion of land and deforestation

could gradually cause severe water crisis in the CHT

region.

Cause a loss of biodiversity and bring on ecological

disaster in the whole area.

The psychological and physical relationships between

the quality of human life and the quality of the natural

environment could also deteriorate.





TEAK MONOCULTURE(1872)

Introduced by the Britishcolonial rulers in the 1872,teak (Tectona grandis)monoculture causes massive

soil erosion, among other illeffects. However desirablecommercially, this exoticspecies causes enormousharm to local environment.

Absence of understoryvegetation is another common feature of the teakplantation. Teak plantation isindeed a "death-knell towildlife conservation".

April 2000: Rangamati Hill District



ACCORDING TO A RESEARCH FINDINGS

OF VAN SCHENDEL ET. AL

³ A monoculture of Teak, however

desirable commercially, is a death-knell to

wildlife conservation. No species of deer

or monkey can find food in such

vegetation, and they are forced to

abandon the area. In the absence of deer,

Tigers and Leopards turn to preying oncattle and goats around the villages and

are therefore shot´.

Source: Van Schendel et. Al 2000: 147





The Karnaphuli Paper Mill (1953)

Polluting the waters of Karnaphuli since its

establishment.

Emitating Toxic Dioxins regularly resulting

dead of fishes and changing the sex organs

and other features of fishes.

Releasing foul odor into the air.

Millions of tons of bamboo and softwood

have been extracted from the hills to keep

the mill running .



The Kaptai Hydroelectric Project

(1963) This dam flooded at least 54,000 acres of settled

cultivable land or about 40% of total cultivable

land.

Displaced over 100,000 (about 25 per cent of

the region¶s population).

Compensation for lost land was inadequate andover 40,000 hill people crossed the border into

India.

( Source: Khan, 1994; Amnesty International, 2000)



The Kaptai Dam¶s Consequences

Huge quantities of trees went under water.

Many of the hill people resumed to shifting

cultivation.

Most of the wildlife once comprised of bison,sambur, barking deer, leopard, R. B. Tiger,

panther etc. are not seen anymore.

Elephant population has drastically decreased. In less than 40 years after the construction of

this the tiger species have gone totally extinct.

( Source: Gain, Philip. Bd Env. Facing the 21st Century, SEHD: 2002)



People that Departed from own

Land Due to Kaptai Dam

Courtesy:PCJSS,1964



Rubber Plantation²A Failure! (1969) Rubber is not native to

CHT, thus causedecological problems.

40,000 acres of land weregrabbed for this purpose.

The yield from rubber

plantations is reported tobe very unsatisfactory.

According to expertobservation, natural rubber does not have mucheconomic and

environmental basis in Bd. When govt. went into

rubber production in theCHT the production wasmuch lower than what was

projected (TK. 81 crore).( Source: Gain, Philip. Bd Env. Facing the 21st Century, SEHD: 2002)

February 1998: Khagrachhari Hill District .



Militarization

More than 76,000 acres of hilly and plain

land are literally shaved and occupied by the

military (Information & Publicity Dept. of PCJSS:2009) .

Unknown numbers of Indigenous people are

displaced for establishing thousands of

temporary army camps.

Everywhere in CHT including RF, military

can access without the permission of local

authority and Forestry Dept.



Exploration of Natural Resources

(1997)

Natural gas with a reserve of 0.16 trillion cubic feet

has been discovered at Sumutang in Khagrachari

Hill district. Good quality natural gas at Ruma inBandarban, petroleum at Alikadam, and reserves of

coal at Lama have also been found (Haque, 2001).

Project is merged by United Meridian Company of

USA and UNOCAL. In Kassalong 1 Drilling Project hills have been

leveled and drilling has already begun.



Tourism

Excitement in making a tourist attraction

since Pakistan period.

Tourism brings cash but it can pose anumber of threats to the social and natural

environment.

It needs very special consideration.



Depot of Teak Lumber

The CHT meetsmost of the country'sdemand for teak, themost desired wood

for furniture anddecoration of houses. However valuable

commercially, teak isexotic to Bangladeshand a major reasonfor soil degradation.

April 2003: Sugar Mill, Rangamati Hill

District



Now the Target is Fuelwood

Fuelwood brought toRangamati from theremote areas of theChittagong Hill Tracts.

Hundreds of boats bringsuch fuelwood from thehill bushes, which is thenquickly transported to

the brick kilns inChittagong or tocustomers in the plains.

February 2003: Rangamati Hill District



Aagar Plantation Replaces Natural

Forest

These hillocks inBandarban Hill District,once covered with

natural forest, are nowclean shaven for plantation of Aagar.

Agar is one of manykinds of commercial

plantations replacing thenatural forest.

April 2000: Bandarban Hill District.



New Innovation of Soil Death?

Tobacco Production-2000



Taste of Humanbeing



Impacts of Climate Change Imbalanced environment

Temp increases Unfavourable rainfall patterns

Increased disease

Increasing pop pressure

Mono-culture human behaviour (nonsustainableuse)

Loss of bio-diversity

Increased diseases

Less production

Dried water sources Soil erosion

Food (in)security

Loss of livelihood

Loss of traditional culture



Recommendations Conduct more research on CC and identify gaps

Familiarization and sensitization

Organize public forums for lobby and advocacy (decisionmakers)

Lobby/advocacy with line department/GOV to make

climate change mitigation policy sensitive to indigenouspeoples

Awareness raising and capacity building training for IP

Full and effective participation in all Government/NGOsinitiatives

Free, Prior informed Consent of IP

International involvement to build capacity of Bangladesh

Proper mitigation and adaptation strategy including the IP

Current climate change strategy of Bangladesh does notmention anything about Impact of Climate Change on IP

and mitigation strategy - it should be revised.



Conclusion

The settlement of environmental and natural resourcedisputes should be addressed by the recognition of

individual human rights and the protection of the

environment (Gormley, 1976).

The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and the1995 World Summit for Social Development highlighted

the importance of an integrated approach to social

advancement (UNDP, 1998) that Human rights, peace,

sustainable development and the protection of the

environment are interdependent and indivisible.

Moreover, the protection of land and resource rights of

the indigenous community is closely related to the

achievement of sustainable development.

Documents

Climate Change & CHT, Bangladesh