seeding hopes in the coast, hills and haorsarannayk.org/pdf/annual_report/af_annualreport_2015.pdfseeding hopes in the coast, hills and haors . seeding hopes in the coast, ... organization

ArAnnAyk FoundAtionAnnua l R epo r t 2015

seeding hopes in the coast, hills and haors

seeding hopes in the coast, hills and haors

seeding hopes in

the coast, hills and

haors

Arannayk Foundationa n n u a l r e p o r t 2 0 1 5

Seeding Hopes in the Coast, Hills and HaorsArannayk Foundation Annual Report 2015

EditorsFarid Uddin AhmedMohd. Abdul QuddusAnirudha Alam

Report WritingMohd. Abdul QuddusAbedul Haque ChowdhuryAbdul MannanFarhana Khan PushpaJessie Namnika DaruAnima Ashraf

Design and LayoutAnirudha AlamMohd. Abdul Quddus

Photo CreditArannyk Foundation and partner organizations (Uttaran, YPSA, Jahangirnagar University – Department of Zoology, IFESCU, Proshika, CNRS, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Tahzingdong, Anando, Hill Flower, SHED)

Published onMay 2016

Published byArannayk Foundation(Bangladesh Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation)House-21 (Apt. 2D), Western RoadDOHS Banani, Dhaka-1206Tel: 880-2-8711240, 8715116Fax: 880-2-8711592E-mail: [email protected]: www.arannayk.org

Printed byClassic CommunicationDhaka, Bangladesh

© 2016, Arannayk Foundation

MessageI feel honored to be the chairman of the Arannayk Foundation (AF) and I am grateful to the former Chairman Mr. Saladin Imam who made the Arannayk Foundation more vibrant through his able leadership. Thanks to the Board of Directors for selecting me as a Chair. I would like to express my heartfelt thank to the Board representatives of the Government of Bangladesh and the United States for selecting three highly reputed professionals as new Board Members in July 2015 to replace three members who completed their tenure. The AF is fortunate to have Dr. Mihir Kanti Mazumder who was the former Secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forests and now Chairman of Palli Sanchay (rural saving) Bank. The Bank provides financial support for improvement of homestead production system through intensive management. This is exactly in line with strategies of the AF for forest conservation through improving livelihood of forest dependent communities. Through inducting Dr. Mazumder, it is expected that the beneficiaries of the AF will have better access to the Palli Sanchay Bank along with their own fund that they have established as revolving loan fund for alternative income generating activities. Prof. Dr. Neaz Ahmed Khan is a reputed social scientist having outstanding contribution in social forestry and co-management in the country. He was also the Country Representative of IUCN for three years. His involvement with the AF will help screening the project using social science lens and contribute in policies. Prof. Dr. Jashim Uddin was the Director of Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences of Chittagong University. He is in active service and specialized in forest management. He is also the member of Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund. I strongly believe that his knowledge and skill will bring new ideas in making the organization more dynamic in near future.

The AF is well known in the country for its innovative works of community based forest conservation throguh livelihood improvement. For sustainability of the interventions, the AF has created some unique mechanism of creating a revolving fund with savings of the beneficiaries and matching grant from the AF. As such fund is managed by the communities, they have full ownership and consequently there is almost 100% recovery of the loan. Moreover, linking loan with tree planting with own cost in homestead contributed to enriching homestead biodiversity as well as creating self reliance for sustained supply of fuel wood and other forest products. Due to repeated utilization of fund, the fund has multiplier effects and it forces the poor household in becoming actively involved in production system.

The leverage of the organizational development and forest conservation is evident from the joining of industrial sector with community based organization with their CSR fund for community development. One reputed company has mobilized their CSR fund for establishing 25 deep tube well in coastal saline areas where drinking water scarcity is severe. In another area, they have supported the communities in establishing one briquette factory so that the communities do not destroy forest vegetation. Thanks to the AF and its partners for doing wonderful job in forest conservation.

The Annual Report 2015 illustrates the activities undertaken by the AF and its partner organizations. I hope you enjoy reading the report. Thanks to the AF Secretariat for their dedicated works.

Ishtiaq Uddin ahmadChair, Board of Directors

3Annual Report 2015

ForewordArannayk Foundation (AF) has been working in partnership with different NGOs, research and academic institutions, community based organizations and the Bangladesh Forest Department for forests and biodiversity conservation.

In 2015, the BCCRF funded ‘Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project’ (CRPARP) constituted the major program of AF in terms of scale of operation and financial outlay. The CRPARP is a joint undertaking of Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD) and the AF in which BFD is responsible for raising 17,500 hectares of block plantations and 2,000 km of roadside plantations and AF for alternative livelihood development of 6,000 forest dependent households in 200 selected villages in nine districts in the coastal belt of Bangladesh. The major interventions of the livelihood component included organizing the selected project participants into village level groups and Union level federations, developing their skills in alternative income generating activities and in organizational and financial management, establishing community patrol groups, and introducing improved cooking stoves to every household. To create access of the poor households to soft loans for their AIGAs, AF established a revolving loan fund at each Union federation by introducing a participatory savings scheme and providing a complementary grant from the project. Thanks to the effectiveness of Arannayk’s technical support, the beneficiaries of the livelihood program were able to utilize the RLF facilities very effectively. Their average annual income increased by 38% and their dependence on collection of forest resources from public forests reduced by 44% in just years.

Besides implementing the BCCRF funded project, the AF provided financial and technical supports to several NGOs for implementation of 13 other projects on community based conservation of forests in hilly and haor (wetland) areas using similar approach. The impacts of project interventions is evident from the positive changes in forest cover, increase in income of forest dependent households, reduction in illegal forest resources harvesting, and reduced fuel wood demand. The monthly savings of the communities is gradually approaching to exceed the grants provided by the AF and recovery rate of loan taken by the poor households is almost 100%.

In Chittagong Hill Tracts, remarkable success has been achieved in mobilizing communities for conservation and restoration of degraded and threatened community conserved forests. Degraded areas were planted with indigenous tree species and bamboos. As an improved alternative to traditional shifting cultivation, indigenous community started using multi-tier agroforestry system that provides short, medium and long term returns. Using the facilities of revolving loan fund, the communities invested in various AIGAs such as pig rearing, cow rearing, small trades and paddy cultivation in leased land.

The annual report provides snapshots of project activities and their impacts on livelihood and forest conservation.

Farid Uddin ahmedExecutive Director

5Annual Report 2015

abbrevIatIons and acronyMs

AF Arannayk Foundation

AIGA Alternative Income Generating Activity/ Activities

ALSFC Alternative Livelihoods to Support Forest Communities

BAS Bangladesh Accounting Standards

BFRI Bangladesh Forest Research Institute

BMZ German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

BCCRF Bangladesh Climate Change Resilient Fund

BDT Bangladeshi Taka (1 USD=78 BDT approximately)

BFD Bangladesh Forest Department

BSRM Bangladesh Steel Re-Rolling Mills

CBO Community Based Organizations

CCA Community Conserved Areas

CHT Chittagong Hill Tracts

CMC Co-management Committee

CNRS Center for Natural Resource Studies

CPG Community Patrol Group

CRF Community Reserve Forest

CRPARP Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project

CWS Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary

DAM Dhaka Ahsania Mission

DC Deputy Commissioner

DTW Deep tube well

ERP Enterprise Resource Planning

FD Forest Department

FDG Forest Dependent Group

FY Financial Year

GFS Gravitational Flow System

GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH

GMS Grant Management Software

GOB Government of Bangladesh

HH Household

Himalica The Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalayas

IAS International Accounting Standards

ICIMOD International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

ICS Improved Cooking Stove

IFESCU Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Chittagong University

IGA Income Generating Activities

IPAC Integrated Protected Area Co-management

LDFC Livelihood Development of Forest Communities

MNRCF Management of Natural Resources and Community Forestry

MOEF Ministry of Environment and Forests

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

MTO Multi-Tier Orchard

NGO Non-governmental organization

NP National Park

NSP Nishorgo Support Project

ODM Organizational Development and Management

PA Protected Area

PET Polyethylene terephthalate

PF People’s Forum

PFA Protected Forest Area

REDD+ Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation + Conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks

RLF Revolving Loan Fund

SHED Society for Health Extension & Development

SND Special Notice Deposit

TFCA Tropical Forest Conservation Act

USA United States of America

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USD United States Dollar

USF Un-classed State Forests

USG United States Government

VCF Village Conservation Forum

VCF Village Common Forest

WB World Bank

YPSA Young Power in Social Action

table of contents

37

11

17

47

5143

9 Exevutive Summary

11 Introduction

17 Making coastal afforestation sustainable through livelihood improvement of forest dependent communities

23 Conservation of protected areas and reserved forests through co-management system

31 Re-greening deforested and degraded hills in chittagong hill tracts

37 Bringing village common forests under sustainable management

43 Participatory restoration and conservation of swamp forests

47 Conservation of threatened tree species

51 Educating new generation for biodiversity conservation

55 The big picture: cumulative impacts

61 Finance

The Arannayk Foundation (AF) also called the ‘Bangladesh Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation’ was established as a not-for-profit company through joint initiatives of the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and the United States Government (USG) in 2003 to support tropical forest conservation activities in Bangladesh.

Based on a grant received from the US Government under the provisions of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (1998) of the latter, the AF provides financial grants and other supports to relevant NGOs, community-based organizations (CBO), educational and research institutions and government agencies for the promotion of conservation, protection, restoration and sustainable management of the forests and biodiversity assets of Bangladesh. Arannayk Foundation accepts grants and project implementation responsibilities from other donors too.

The grant making activities of the AF started from 2006 and since then it has funded and implemented 38 projects on important forest and biodiversity conservation issues. In 2015, AF disbursed 27 grants to 16 implementing partners and 55 grants directly to forest dependent communities, totaling BDT 162.36 million, under 19 projects. The BCCRF funded Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project (CRPARP) constituted the major program of the year in terms of budget and area coverage. AF has been implementing the ‘livelihood component’ of this project since 2013 in collaboration with Bangladesh Forest Department which is implementing a massive afforestation and reforestation program in nine coastal districts namely Cox’s Bazaar, Chittagong, Noakhali, Lxmipur, Feni, Bhola, Barisal, Barguna and Patuakhali. Arannayk Foundation is helping 6,000 poor forest dependent households from 200 selected villages of those areas to become self-reliant and contribute to protection and conservation of the forests. Arannayk Foundation also has been implementing a similar livelihood support program for the conservation of the Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) in Chittagong since 2012.

executive summary

9Annual Report 2015

In both the projects, alternative income generating activities (AIGAs) are promoted among forest dependent people through awareness programs, trainings, community based meetings and Revolving Loan Fund system. This has diversified their income, reducing dependency on forest resources and leading to increased forest coverage and improved biodiversity and wildlife in the areas.

The other projects supported by the AF in 2015 dealt with conservation of three protected areas and two reserved forests through co-management system, restoration of forest cover in denuded and degraded un-classed state forests (USF) in two areas of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), conservation of twelve village common forests (VCF) in CHT and five swamp forests in Sunamganj and some research activities.

In all of its forest conservation projects, Arannayk Foundation promotes and supports alternative livelihood development of the forest dependent communities as the main strategy. It organizes selected households (poor and forest dependent) into groups and federations and helps them to establish revolving loan funds (RLF) by undertaking participatory savings schemes to provide low-interest loan support to their members for undertaking alternative income generating activities (AIGA). AF also provides complementary grants to them for this purpose and organizes necessary trainings to develop their AIGA and management skills. To reduce fuel wood consumption, AF promotes improved cooking stoves among its project beneficiaries.

Through effective use of the RLF facilities, Arannayk’s project participants have been able to significantly improve their economic conditions and repay their loans on time. Assessments conducted by the AF revealed that the average annual income of its project beneficiaries has increased by 96% in the projects on co-management of protected areas and reserved forest, 47% in the projects in CHT and 125% in the project on swamp forests in 5-6 years and by 38% in CRPARP in just two years. Collection of forest resources from public forests by the Arannayk project beneficiaries has reduced by 30 – 60% in different project areas. As a result, tree cover and biodiversity have been improving in the project areas of Arannayk Foundation.

Aside from the above conservation impacts, the AF interventions have contributed significantly to poverty reduction, empowerment of women and indigenous communities, reduction of CO2 emission and improvement of resilience of forest dependent communities.

Arannayk Foundation also has been able to maintain high level of efficiency in its grant making and technical support services. In FY 2014-15, only 10% of its total spending was used for its core expenses and another 2% for technical support to the grantees, while 88% was awarded to project implementing entities and forest dependent communities as grants.

10 Arannayk Foundation

AF provides financial grants and other supports to relevant organizations and entities for conservation, protection, restoration and sustainable management of the forests and biodiversity assets of Bangladesh. Since 2006, it has delivered 100 grants to 71 implementing entities and 55 grants directly to forest dependent communities for this purpose.

introduction

the organization

Arannayk Foundation (AF), also called the Bangladesh Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation, is a not-for-profit organization established in 2003 through a joint initiative of the Governments of Bangladesh and United States of America in response to the state of depletion of Bangladesh’s tropical forest resources. The mission of the AF is to facilitate and support conservation, protection, restoration and sustainable use and management of tropical forests in Bangladesh.

Based on a grant received from the US Government under the provisions of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (1998) of the latter, the AF provides financial grants and other supports to relevant NGOs, community-based organizations (CBO), educational and research institutions and government agencies for the promotion of conservation, protection, restoration and sustainable management of the forests and biodiversity assets of Bangladesh. Arannayk Foundation accepts grants and project implementation responsibilities from other donors too.

AF is managed by an independent Board of Directors, which includes one representative of the Government of Bangladesh, one representative of the Government of USA and five members from relevant civil society organizations.

grant Making activities

The grant making activities of the AF started from 2006 and, by 2015, it disbursed 100 grants to 71 implementing entities and 55 grants directly to forest dependent

communities, totalling BDT 537.30 million, under 38 projects. These grants were given to NGOs, research and academic institutions, the Bangladesh Forest Department and community based organizations to implement projects on important issues of forest and biodiversity conservation.

Until 2010, the TFCA grant and additional interest incomes generated by investing part of it (undisbursed) in time deposits constituted the only source of its grants and other expenses. However, from 2011, it started partnering (co-financing) with, and receiving grants from, other donors too.

In 2011, it received a grant amounting to EUR 478,612 from German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through GIZ to implement the ‘Livelihood Development of Forest Communities (LDCF)’ component of the ‘Management of Natural Resources and Community Forestry (MNRCF)’ project in Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary – a protected area in the southeast of Bangladesh. AF also contributed EUR 127,595 to this undertaking and implemented the project with the help of an implementing partner NGO (SHED). In 2013, the AF received another USD 3.8 million grant from the World Bank administered multi-donor climate change trust fund called Bangladesh Climate Change Resilient Fund (BCCRF) to implement the ‘Alternative Livelihood to Support Forest Communities (ALSFC)’ component of the ‘Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project (CRPARP)’ under a similar arrangement. AF contributed USD 2.0 million to this joint undertaking. AF is implementing this project in


nine coastal and coastal hilly districts of Bangladesh with the help of two other partner NGOs (YPSA, SHED). AF also received another small grant (USD 42,000) from the Nepal based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) under its Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalayas (HIMALICA)initiative for implementing a stakeholders’ capacity building program on ‘adaptation to change including climate change issues’ in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).

grants disbursed in 2015

In 2015, Arannayk Foundation disbursed 27 grants to 16 implementing partners and 55 grants directly to forest dependent communities under 19 projects, all of which were continuing from previous years. In December 2015, the AF Board approved a new grant amounting to BDT 7.7 million to Proshika for undertaking a project on monitoring of organizational dynamism and development activities of community based organizations in phased out projects of Arannayk Foundation. The implementation of this new project was scheduled to start from January 2016.

The BCCRF funded Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project (Livelihood

Component) constituted the major program of the AF 2015 in terms of budget and area coverage. The other projects dealt with, collaborative management of protected areas and reserved forests, restoration of forest cover in denuded and degraded hills and swamp forests and conservation of village common forests (VCF) in Chittagong Hill Tracts, conservation of threatened tree species, environmental education and some research projects including a participatory carbon estimation project in CHT.

Arannyak’s multi-faceted strategy for forest conservation

13Annual Report 2015

arannayk Foundation grant disbursement in 2015

Project Titleimplementing

Entity

Date of commen-cement

Duration (months)

amount of grant (million

BDT)

amount disbursed in 2015 (million

BDT)

1. Inani Protected Forest Area (PFA) Co-management - NGO component (Phase-4) SHED Jul-14 36 23.10 5.21

2. Restoration and Conservation of Biodiversity in the Denuded Hills in Banskhali, Chittagong - NGO component (Phase-2) DAM Dec-12 28 6.65 2.30

3. Restoration and Conservation of Biodiversity in the Denuded Hills in Banskhali, Chittagong - NGO component (Phase-3) DAM Apr-15 24 7.70 1.20

4. Restoration and Conservation of Biodiversity in the Denuded Hills in Sitakunda and Mirsharai, Chittagong - NGO component (Phase-2)

YPSA Jul-12 36 6.70 0.80

5. Restoration and Conservation of Biodiversity in Singra Sal Forest, Dinajpur - NGO component (Phase-2) RDRS Jul-12 33 5.70 0.41

6. Restoration and Conservation of Biodiversity in Barind Dhamoirhat Sal Forest, Naogaon - NGO component (Phase-2) Padakhep Jul-12 33 6.50 0.54

7. Community Based Forest Resource Management for Sustainable Development in Rowangchari, Banderban Hill District (Phase-2)

Tahzingdong Dec-12 28 4.51 1.40

8. Community Based Forest Resource Management for Sustainable Development in Rowangchari, Banderban Hill District (Phase-3)

Tahzingdong Apr-15 24 7.70 1.44

9. Indigenous Community Based Sustainable Management of Chimbuk Hill Forest in Bandarban Hill District (Phase-2)

Humanitarian Foundation

Oct-12 30 5.00 0.77

10. Livelihood support for Conservation of Gazalia Village Common Forest, Bandarban Hill Tracts Toymu Jan-13 36 2.00 0.45

11. Livelihood support for Conservation of Dhanpata Village Common Forest, Khagrachari Hill Tracts Kabidang Jan-13 36 2.00 0.65

The core strategy of the AF projects involves organizing and developing institutional and management capacities of forest dependent communities for participatory actions towards restoration, conservation and sustainable management of the forests and promotion of alternative income generating activities (AIGA) among them through establishment of community-managed Revolving Loan Funds (RLF). Arannayk projects also promote bio-intensive homestead agroforestry practices and improved cooking stoves among its project participants.

Though mostly of pilot scale, the Arannayk projects have been very successful in demonstrating effective

ways to restoring and conserving forest cover and biodiversity in denuded and degraded forest lands under different administrative and social conditions due to the appropriateness of its strategies. Thus, despite their small scales, the Arannayk Foundation projects are sowing ‘seeds of hope’ in the hearts and minds of the forest dependent poor people of the coastal, hilly and haor areas of Bangladesh. This hope is about the sustainability of their ecosystem and livelihoods amid the threats of climate change and increasing population pressure on the natural resources.


Project Titleimplementing

Entity

Date of commen-cement

Duration (months)

amount of grant (million

BDT)

amount disbursed in 2015 (million

BDT)

12. Conservation and Regeneration of Biodiversity of Village Common Forest in Khagrachari (Phase-1) Proshika Aug-11 45 6.00 0.71

13. Conservation and Regeneration of Biodiversity of Village Common Forest in Khagrachari (Phase-2) Proshika Apr-15 24 7.70 0.75

14. Community-based Conservation of Forest Resources and Enhancing Rural Livelihood in Rangamati of CHT (Phase-2) Hill Flower Jul-12 33 5.50 1.27

15. Community-based Conservation of Forest Resources and Enhancing Rural Livelihood in Rangamati of CHT (Phase-3) Hill Flower Apr-15 24 7.70 1.50

16. Restoration of Hilly Biodiversity through Community Based Bio-Resource Management at Dighinala, Khagrachari (Phase-2) Anando Jul-12 33 7.00 0.68

17. Restoration of Hilly Biodiversity through Community Based Bio-Resource Management at Dighinala, Khagrachari (Phase-3) Anando Apr-15 24 7.70 2.12

18. Swamp Forest Restoration in Haor Areas of Shunamganj Dist. (Phase-2) CNRS Jul-12 33 6.85 1.20

19. Swamp Forest Restoration in Haor Areas of Shunamganj Dist. (Phase-3) CNRS Apr-15 24 7.70 2.90

20. Coastal Biodiversity Conservation through Creating Alternative Income Generation Facilities (Phase-2) Uttaran Oct-12 36 6.00 0.31

21. Conservation of Threatened Species (Phase-2) IFESCU Jul-12 48 4.50 1.41

22. Determining baseline forest carbon stock through participatory carbon measurement for REDD+ in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

IFESCU Mar-14 18 3.00 0.29

23. Promotional and awareness raising activities of the Arannayk Foundation BCL Oct-10 60 6.00 0.80

24. Livelihood Development of Forest-dependent Communities in and around Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary – Co-financing with GIZ (Phase-1)

SHED Jan-12 43 58.46 9.94

25. Livelihood Development of Forest-dependent Communities in and around Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (Phase-2) SHED Jul-15 24 7.70 2.30

26. Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project; Component-2: Alternative Livelihoods to Support Forest Communities (Southeast Region) - BCCRF funded

YPSA Dec-13 37 123.77 30.39

27. Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project; Component-2: Alternative Livelihoods to Support Forest Communities (Southern Region) - BCCRF funded

Uttaran Dec-13 37 108.75 31.02

28. Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project; Component-2: Alternative Livelihoods to Support Forest Communities - BCCRF funded

55 Union FDG Federations

Total 162.36



MaKing coastal aFForestation

sustainaBle through

liVelihood iMproVeMent

oF Forest dependent

coMMunities

BFD and AF have been jointly implementing the BCCRF-funded Climate Resilient Participatory Afforesttaion and Reforestation Project since July 2013. While the afforestation activities of the project cover more than 800 villages in nine coastal districts, AF is involved in creating alternative livelihood opportunities for 6,000 forest dependent households in 200 selected villages as a pilot initiative.

plantations and 2000 km strip plantations in newly accreted or fallow coastal lands and degraded forests in nine coastal and hilly districts, namely Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Feni, Laxmipur, Noakhali, Bhola, Barisal, Patuakhali and Barguna. An important specialty of this project is that it includes a ‘livelihood’ component to create non-forest based income opportunities for the forest dependent communities so that pressures on the forests are reduced and the forests are conserved. Forest Department is responsible for the implementation of the plantation (afforestation and reforestation) component and Arannayk Foundation is responsible for the livelihood component.

While the afforestation and reforestation activities extend over more than 800 villages, the livelihood component titled ‘Alternative Livelihoods to Support Forest Communities’ (ALSFC) is being implemented in only 200 selected villages as a pilot activity. AF implements the activities of the livelihood component through two partner NGOs: YPSA in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar and Uttaran in the other seven districts.

AF selected the 200 villages, in consultation with concerned FD officials, from those areas where the plantations are highly vulnerable to human disturbances. From each of the 200 villages, AF selected 30 poor and extreme poor forest dependent households through a rigorous screening process involving participatory wealth ranking and detailed

context

The coastal belt of Bangladesh is prone to tropical cyclones and storm surges. Every decade, some highly devastating cyclones kill thousands of people and destroy their assets and infrastructure. Global climate change is further increasing the frequency of such extreme weather events and creating new problems. Due to sea level rise, progressive intrusion of saline water is making the crop fields unsuitable for rice cultivation. Poor farmers are compelled to go to distant places to work as migratory farm laborers, leaving their women and children back home in vulnerable situation. Although Bangladesh Forest Department has undertaken several afforestation projects since 1960s to protect the coastal villages from high impacts of cyclones by establishing a forest belt along the coastline, many of the plantations got damaged or degraded mainly due to human disturbances such as illicit cutting of the trees and cattle grazing.

interventions

In order to increase area of coastal afforestation in a sustainable manner, Bangladesh Forest Department and Arannayk Foundation have jointly initiated a new project titled ‘Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project’ from July 2013 through financial support from the World Bank (WB) administered Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF). The project aims to establish 17,500 hectare of block


socio-economic survey of the households followed by validation meetings involving community leaders and local FD officials.

In each of the 200 villages, AF organized the 30 poorest and most disadvantaged forest dependent households into a self-help group called Forest Dependent Group. Then all the Forest Dependent Groups (FDG) of a Union have been united into a Union-level Federation. Altogether there are 55 Union FDG federations. AF trained the Federation leaders as well as the leaders of the village level groups in organizational and financial management. For each village level group, AF also engaged a local Community Organizing Volunteer to help the group in their organizational activities.

At the beginning of the project, AF gave a small quantity of improved seeds of 16 types of vegetables, 5-6 grafted saplings of five types of fruit trees and 3-4 poultry birds for free to each household, along with training on the cultivation techniques of those crops and management of the poultry birds. The beneficiary households started producing different vegetables in their homesteads round the year. Aside from increased family consumption, many of them earned good amount of money by selling their surplus production of vegetables, eggs and poultry birds.

AF helped the Union FDG Federations to establish a revolving loan fund (RLF) termed Mutual Rotating Savings and Loan Fund (MRSLF) to support alternative income generating activities (AIGA) of their members by introducing a monthly savings scheme at the FDGs and giving a matching grant to each Federation. Under the monthly savings scheme, each member of a forest dependent group deposits BDT 100 per month to their group fund. By December 2015,


the 55 FDG federations raised more than eight million taka through this savings scheme and Arannayk Foundation gave them around BDT 60 million from the project. The FDG federations give short-term loans to their members for undertaking alternative income generating activities. The terms and conditions of the loans were determined by the Union FDG Federations. The loan size ranges from BDT 5,000-25,000 for a maximum period of 12 months and the interest rate or service charge ranges from 5% to 10% per annum in different Federations. Arannayk Foundation and its partner NGOs facilitate market linkage development for the products of the project beneficiaries.

results

As of December 2015, about 80% of the 6,000 households took RLF loans from their Federations and invested the money in different AIGAs such as cow rearing and beef fattening, cultivation of rice by leasing land, small businesses, fishing, vegetable cultivation, poultry rearing, goat rearing and some other trades (purchase of rickshaw van, tailoring, nursery, fish culture, etc.) by a few. AF provided necessary training to the project participants using resource persons from both government line agencies and private sector. Almost 100% of the borrowers have been repaying their loans (installments) as per mutually agreed repayment schedule.

In order to diversify household’s sources of short-term and long-term incomes, AF promotes multi-tier agroforestry system and year-round intensive vegetable cultivation in homesteads. Demonstrations on ‘multi-storey agroforestry model’ have been established in two homesteads in each Union (110 in total).

Arannayk Foundation also supplied one improved cooking stove to each of its 6,000 project participants and conducted intensive motivational campaign on tree planting to reduce households’ dependency on public forests for their fuel wood needs. It also mobilized the members of the Forest Dependent Groups to participate and take benefits of the social forestry program of the project.

In 21 places where the plantations were at high risk of human disturbances, AF has established Community Patrol

Groups (4 in Patuakhali, 1 in Noakhali and 3 in Chittagong Coastal Afforestaion Divisions; 2 in Chittagong North and 3 in Chittagong South Forest Division; and 5 in Cox’s Bazar South and 3 in Cox’s Bazar North Forest Division) to help Beat officers and forest guards of respective areas in the monitoring and protection of the plantations and existing forests. A CPG consists of 21 members and everyday three of them patrol the new as well as old plantations and natural forests in the respective area along with the Forest Guards and under the supervision of the concerned Beat Officer or Camp Officer of Forest Department.

Baseline surveys and subsequent impact studies revealed that the average annual income of the beneficiaries of the livelihood component of CRPARP increased by 38% and the collection of forest resources by them in the areas of old plantations or natural forests decreased by 44% by December 2015. Monitoring of forest conditions in 19 out of the 43 Forest Beats with existing plantations or natural forests in close proximity of the livelihood piloting sites recorded a net increase in tree density due to retention of the naturally regenerated trees. The diversity of trees and vegetables in their homesteads also increased significantly which diversified their source of income and nutrition, contributing to increased resilience.


some Inspiring stories

Forest dependent family of saju is now self-reliant due to crParP

Saju Begum lives in a small village named Rahmatabad in MirsaraiUpazila of Chittagong with her husband and four children. Both she and her husband used to collect fuel wood, and even cut trees, from the forest to earn a living for the family. They could not afford to send their children to school. After joining the project in 2014, she started cultivating different vegetables and rearing chicken in her homestead with the vegetable seeds and three chickens she got free from the project. She saved BDT

5,000 from the money she earned from selling her surplus production of vegetables and some poultry birds. In June 2015, she took a loan of BDT 10,000 from her Federation and invested that money, along with the money saved from selling vegetables and chickens, in cow rearing. She paid off her first loan in six months and immediately took a second loan amounting to BDT 25,000 from the Federation to lease a land, where she is cultivating different vegetables now. The economic condition of the family is much better now and both of them have stopped collecting fuel wood and cutting trees from the forest. All four of their children are now going to school.


community Patrol group improved protection of coastal plantations

Chargangamati in Kalapara Upazila of Patuakhali district is one of those areas where Arannayk Foundation has established Community Patrol Groups (CPG) under the Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project to help local FD officials protect the new plantations to be raised (by FD) under the project and the existing plantations and natural forests around that as well.

The Camp of the Forest Department Char Gangamati covers an area of 20 square kilometer (2,000 ha) with new as well as old coastal plantations. Due to inadequate staff at the Forest Camp, it was difficult for the Forest Department to protect the plantations. There was frequent incidence of illegal felling of trees from the plantations. Now the members of the CPG formed by the Char Gangamati

Forest Dependent Group regularly patrol the plantations (both new and old) in and around the village along with the forest guards of the Char Gangamati Forest Camp. Due to this intervention, the incidence of illicit cutting of trees from the coastal plantations in Char Gangamati has reduced significantly. The forest guards appreciate the contributions of the CPG members in patrolling and protecting the plantations.

Forest Guard Mr. Gazi Nasir Uddin said, “We never thought that we will be getting this much help from the locals for protecting the trees. We were only six people in our camp and it was very difficult for us to patrol the 20 square kilometer area, but the CPG members have made our job much easier. They are regularly patrolling the forest with us and the incidence of illegal felling has reduced remarkably. If the enthusiasm of the CPG can be sustained, we will be able to save our existing as well as future plantations from illegal felling.”


conserVation oF protected areas

and reserVed Forests through

co-ManageMent sYsteM

Through a BFD-AF collaborative program, Arannayk Foundation established co-management system, along with sustainable means of alternative livelihood of the forest dependent communities, in five reserved forests during 2009-2013. Subsequently three of those forests have been declared as protected areas by the Government of Bangladesh.

context

Collaborative forest management (co-management) is a pluralistic management system in which the management of a forest is locally governed by an inclusive multi-stakeholder body consisting of representatives from local communities, forest resource users, Forest Department and other service providing agencies. The co-management system was first designed and piloted in five protected areas by BFD under the USAID supported Nishorgo Support Project. Based on promising performance of the pilot initiative, the Government of Bangladesh authorized its application to all protected areas of the country in 2009 through a Gazette Notification defining its scope, management structure, roles and responsibilities and benefit sharing arrangements. In 2008, when USAID launched the Integrated Protected Area Co-management Project (IPAC) after NSP to help BFD extend the co-management system to all protected areas, Arannayk Foundation and BFD took a joint initiative to explore the feasibility of applying co-management approach to reserved forests.

interventions

In June 2009, the AF started piloting the co-management approach in five reserved forest areas: Inani under Cox’s Bazar South Forest Division, Banshkhali under Cox’s Bazar South Forest, Sitakunda-Mirsarai Ranges under Chittagong North Forest Division, Singra Sal forest under

Dinajpur Social Forestry Division and Dhamoirhat Sal forest under Rajshahi Social Forestry Division. The Inani (10,000 ha) and Banshkhali (1,739 ha) forests are habitats of Asian elephants but had become highly degraded due to excessive illicit cutting of trees by local communities and consequently incidence of human-elephant conflicts became a serious concern to the Forest Department and local communities. The forests of Sitakunda-Mirsarai Ranges also became almost denuded due to similar problem. On the other hand, the Sal (Shorea robusta) forests of Singra and Dhamoirhat were being degraded mainly due to removal of leaves of the trees from the forest floor by local communities for using them as fuel material.

For each area, AF engaged a partner NGO to promote alternative livelihoods among the forest dependent households and mobilize stakeholders to establish the co-management system consisting of a Co-management Council, a Co-management Committee (CMC) and a Peoples Forum (PF) at the Forest Range or Beat or Upazila level and Village Conservation Forums (VCF) and Community Patrol Groups (CPG) involving the forest dependent people of the villages located in the vicinity of the respective forest. AF supported FD to undertake reforestation and enrichment planting programs for the deforested and degraded areas of the forests.

To promote alternative livelihood development of the forest dependent households, AF and its partner NGOs


identified and organized the highly forest dependent poor households of each village in a target area into a self-help group (VCF) and subsequently federated them at the Union level and helped them establish a Revolving loan Fund (RLF) at the VCF or federation level to support alternative income generating activities (AIGA) of their members. To establish the RLF, the VCFs brought their members under a monthly savings scheme and the AF provided them a complementary grant. AF and its partner NGOs provided various AIGA skills trainings to the VCF members according to their choices and plans and trainings on leadership, organizational development and management (ODM) and financial management to the group and federation leaders. Improved agroforestry practices in homesteads for year-round production of different vegetables, fruits and fuel wood and improved methods of poultry and livestock rearing in the homesteads constituted the major focus of the AIGA trainings.

results

By 2012, the co-management organizations (CM Council, CMC, PF, CPG) became functional, the BFD completed the planned reforestation and enrichment planting activities, the VCFs and their federations gained significant momentum in operating their participatory savings and lending activities and the VCF members undertook various AIGA ventures using the RLF loan facilities.

Motivated by the effectiveness of its approaches in these AF-BFD collaborative projects and in other projects of the AF, the GIZ came forward to partner with Arannayk Foundation and engaged it in developing and implementing a similar program on alternative livelihood development of the forest dependent communities in the Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) area under a GIZ-BFD collaborative project titled ‘Management of Natural resources and Community Forestry in Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (MNRCF-CWS)’. Co-management system already was in place in the CWS (7,773 ha) since 2005 but due to lack of alternative livelihood development opportunities of the VCF and CPG members, it was not much effective. The AF federated the VCFs at the Union level (60 VCFs, 8 federations), established RLF facilities for the VCF and CPG members at the federation level and organized various training programs for AIGA skills development of the VCF members and organizational and financial management capacity of their group and federation leaders.

To measure the impacts of the livelihood program on the forest conservation, the AF undertook an innovative monitoring program in each project area involving recording of all kinds of forest resources extracted from the forest in a subtle manner using local volunteers. To reduce fuel wood consumption in its beneficiary households, the AF supplied improved cooking stoves (ICS) to them in highly subsidized process.

By June 2015, all the projects made significant achievements towards sustainable alternative livelihood


development of the forest dependent households and better protection and conservation of the forests. The Singra and Dhamoirhat Sal forests and the forests in Sitakunda-Mirsarai Ranges got notified as National Parks (PA). With these good successes, these three projects came to completion in June 2015. Despite similar improvements in establishing effective co-management system and alternative livelihood development of the forest dependent communities, the independent evaluators of Inani, Banshklai and Chunait projects recommended extending those project for 2-3 more years as these forests had been under extreme pressure of illicit forest resource extraction for many years and still bear the risk of falling back to previous conditions unless the institutional sustainability of the VCF federations and CPGs are fully ensured. Accordingly, Arannayk Foundation has extended the duration of these three projects for two more years from July 2015.



arannayk support enabled poor forest dependent people to take advantage of the booming ecotourism market in Inani

While the Inani forest became highly degraded due to high concentration of poor people in and around the forest area who used to dependent on illegal extraction of forest resources for their livelihood, the increasing influx of tourists in Inani beach started showing them new opportunities. The tourists created demands for such goods and services as food and beverages, souvenirs, photography, fun rides in the beach, etc. However, the poor people were not in a position to seize the opportunity due to lack of idea and capital. The RLF facility of the Inani Protected Forest Area Co-management Project and advisory service of the project staff changed the situation for the beneficiaries of the project in the villages near the beach. Advisory support of the project motivated some of the VCF members of Chhoto Inani village under Jaliapalong Union of Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar to start small businesses in the beach, taking RLF loans from their VCF. Amin Ullah alias Sona Mia, Jafar Imam, Nurul Islam and Mahbub Alam were the ones to come first to try their lucks in new businesses.

In 2010, Sonia Mia set up a small convenience store and subsequently a mini-restaurant, Nurul Islam set up a sea-shell souvenir shop and Mahbub Alam sells green coconut. Jafar Imam also started with selling green coconut and then shifted to selling fried fish on the beach. Each of them started with a small loan ranging from BDT 4,000 to BDT 8,000 but, thanks to the good profit they could make, all of them repaid their first loan within a year and each of them took a second loan ranging from BDT 10,000 to BDT 20,000 to expand their businesses. Sona Mia took this third loan, amounting to BDT 20,000 in 2012 to establish his mini restaurant.

While they could hardly earn BDT 4,500 – 6,000 per month from their illegal forest resource extraction activities before joining the Arannayk project, now each of them earns BDT 10,000-15,000 per month during the tourist season (November-March). In case of Sona Mia and Mahbub Alam, the incomes sometimes even go up to BDT 60,000 and BDT 20,000 per month, respectively, in the peak tourist season. Thus none of them dependent on the forest for the livelihood of their families anymore and they rather contribute to the protection of the forest by rendering patrol duty one day per week.


arannayk’s capacity building support turned inconspicuous women to popular community leaders

Forest dweller Roksana Begum (28) of Jangle Basti Road Para, Chakaria, Cox’s Bazar had been living a miserable life with her husband Jashim Uddin (35) and three children after her husband lost his job from a construction firm. Having no other alternative, both Roksana and Jashim became fully dependent on the nearest CWS for their livelihood. Every day they used to go to the forest, collect firewood, bamboo or sun-grass and sell in the local market. They were living hand to mouth with a very small income from the forest resources collected illegally. After joining the GIZ-AF supported LDFC-CWS project in 2012, Roksana was able to change her livelihood and economic condition using the training, input support and RLF loan facility.

Taking a loan of BDT 10,000 from the RLF of her VCF, she judiciously invested the money in a number of small production ventures such cultivation of vegetables and flowers (gladiolus, rose), poultry (chicken, pigeon) rearing, goat rearing, fishing net weaving, tailoring and ‘Nakshi-katha’ (embroidered quilt) making. She also involved her husband in floriculture, vegetable gardening and marketing the products in local market as well as in Chittagong town.

Within a couple of years, Roksana and her husband extended their flower business. Roksana’s husband started collecting flowers from other farmers’ gardens too and marketing those at Chittagong town. Their average monthly income has increased to more than BDT 20,000. In the meantime, Roksana has paid off her loan and took another loan of the same amount (BDT 10,000) from the RLF to expand her floriculture business.

Being impressed by her progress and her leadership qualities, the members of Jungle Basti VCF elected Roksana as the General Secretary of their VCF in April 2015 and then she became an Executive Member of Harbang Union VCF Federation.

It’s not only Roksana but many other women beneficiaries of Arannayk projects, such as Shafique Ara, President of Maddya Duaripara Village Conservation (VCF) and Sectary of Sadhanpur Union Federation in Banshkhali, Chittagong, have become popular leader of their respective group and federation by virtue of their devotion and exemplary success in development work. Aside from their interest and devotion, Arannayk’s capacity building supports such as trainings on leadership, organizational development and management (ODM) and AIGA skills and creation of their access to capital for income generating activities have obviously played a key role in their development.


a community patroller with exemplary dedication

Abu Taher (40), one of the dedicated Community Patrol Group (CPG) members, was seriously injured by gunfire on 07 January 2015 in the night while seizing a truck loaded with illegal forest resources from Sadhanpur Forest Beat, Banskhali, Chittagong. He was accompanied by the Beat Officer and two other CPG members. Taher located the truck with his torch and gave chase to the culprits along with his companions. When he was close to them, one of the culprits shot him in his chest and abdomen and fled away. The Beat Officer and his fellow CPG members immediately took him to the Chittagong Medical College and Hospital. BFD officials, CMC members and staff of Dhaka Ahsania Mission also accompanied him to the hospital. He underwent emergency surgery to remove the bullets and was unconscious for 12 hours. It took him more than a month to recover.

Despite the ordeal, Abu Taher was pleased that he could save the forest resources. He is recovered now but he is

anxious about the livelihood of his five-member family as he is the sole breadwinner and still he has some medical restrictions and will not be able to do any hard work in near future. Acknowledging Abu’s dedication towards forest protection and assessing his actual financial situation, AF, DAM and BFD provided him with financial support for running his family through IGAs. Abu now rears cow and cultivates vegetable for the subsistence of his family.

Learning about Abu’s deadly encounter with illegal encroachers many other locals came forward to be a part of the CPG. Currently, there are two CPGs in two Beats of Banshkhali, each consisting of 28 members. The CPG members patrol the forests of the respective Beats along with BFD representatives on a roster basis. Although illegal extraction of forest resources from Sadhanpur Beat started decreasing from the time the CPGs were instituted in March’14, there has been a particularly drastic reduction in the incidence of such forest crimes after the deadly encounter made by Abu Taher and no such incidence has happened again ever since.


re-greening deForested and degraded hills

in chittagong hill tracts

Through two pilot projects in Rangamati and Khagrachari, Arannayk Foundation has developed effective strategies to restoring vegetation cover and biodiversity in the degraded Un-classed State Forest (USF) of Chittagong Hill Tracts through community based management.

context

Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) accounts for 10% of the total area of Bangladesh. Around 75% of total area of CHT is hilly and was once covered with dense forests but now most of it is in denuded or degraded condition due to over-exploitation and lack unsustainable management. Except for 25% area under reserved forests, most of the remaining forest lands of CHT are under the administrative control of the civil administration of the district and designated as Un-classed State Forests (USF). The USFs are particularly highly degraded due to several reasons such as increased population pressure arising mainly from large-scale migration of poor people from the plains, conversion of natural forest to monoculture teak and rubber plantations by leaseholders and shifting cultivation by indigenous communities with very short (3-4 years) fallow period. In this backdrop, Arannayk Foundation (AF) initiated two pilot projects in 2009 – one in Khagrachari and one in Rangamati district – to develop effective strategies for community based conservation of the USFs.

project in dighinala

The project in Dighinala titled “Restoration of Hilly Biodiversity through Community Based Bio-Resource Management at Dighinala, Khagrachari” started with piloting in two villages in Merung Union, where 35 indigenous households were living since 1997 being rehabilitated there by the CHT Development Board after the CHT Peace Accord. Each

household had 2.25 acres (0.91 ha) of hilly land, received under the resettlement project, which became denuded and fertility-degraded due to repeated jhum (slash and burn) cultivation with very short fallow period.

Arannayk’s partner NGO Aanando trained and guided the project participants to bring their homesteads, fallow hills and stream banks under productive and sustainable use using well defined land-use models for specific site conditions. Timber trees such Champa (Michelia champaca), Chapalish (Artocarpus chama), Garjan (Dipterocarpus turbinatus) and Bahera (Terminslia bellerica) were planted on the upper part of the hill; fruit trees with thick trunks such as Mango, Litchi, Indian Olive (Elaeocarpus floribundus) and Wood-Apple (Aegle marmelos) on the middle part; short-stature fruit trees such as Orange, Lemon and Papaya intercropped with pineapple, vegetables or root crops on the gently sloped lower part of the hill and bamboo on stream banks. In the homesteads and valley lands, they established multi-tier orchards (MTO) and a model of productive living fence consisting of two lemon trees and six pineapple plants in between two Mahogani (Switenia macrophylla), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Indian Olive, Champa or Jackfruit trees in every three meters in a row along the boundary line of the homestead. They planted papaya and different vegetables in all available spaces of their homesteads.


To foster community initiatives for sustainable management of the natural resources and alternative livelihood development, Anando organized and developed the households into a cooperative and helped them establish a revolving loan fund by introducing a monthly savings program and providing them a small grant of BDT 245,000. Under their savings scheme, each member started contributing BDT 100 per month and the management committee of the cooperative started giving small loans of up to BDT 10,000 at a minimal interest rate of 3% to their members for undertaking AIGAs. By June 2012, their RLF stood at BDT 575,077 due to its rapid circulation. The beneficiary households invested their loans in cattle and pig rearing, poultry rearing, vegetable cultivation, leasing land for rice cultivation and various small businesses.

Short rotation crops of the MTO such as Pineapple and papaya started yielding within a year or two after planting; quick growing fruit trees such as Amroplai and Rangui varieties of mango and guava from the second or third year; and bamboo after three years of planting. The boundary lines also started yielding pineapple from the second and fuel wood from the third year.

Based on the successful outcomes of the pilot initiative in two villages, Anando extended the program to two more adjacent villages within the Union involving 100 households in 2013 and another 100 households in four villages of the adjacent Pabakhali Union in 2015. In the extended areas, AF did not give any grant to form RLF but the groups established that by undertaking monthly savings schemes. Through training and input support, all of the 200 new households enriched their hills and homesteads with tress and other agroforestry crops.

Over 2009-2015, the 235 beneficiary households planted 59,245 trees in their homesteads, 113,427 trees in their hills and 27,250 bamboo seedlings on stream and river banks. The areas planted during 2009-2013 have regained vegetation cover water flow in the streams of those areas has improved significantly. The average annual income of the households in those areas has increased from BDT 60,000 to BDT 84,000. The income is increasing every year due to increasing harvests of fruits and bamboos.

In the first two villages, adoption of ICS by almost all the households decreased their fuel-wood consumption by 40-45%. On the other hand, the trees they have planted in their homesteads and hills are increasingly meeting their fuel wood needs. While one or more members of a family used to collect fuel-wood from forests almost every day, now they barely go to the forests for such purpose once or twice a week.

project in Wagga

The project in Wagga, Rangamati, titled ‘Community-based Conservation of Forest Resources and Enhancing Rural Livelihood in Rangamati of CHT’ is being implemented by a Rangamati-based local NGO, Hill Flower. The project was initiated in June 2009 in five villages of Wagga Union, where shifting cultivation and collection of forest resources (timber, fuel wood) from the USF lands, including stones from the hill slopes and creeks, were the main occupation of 127 households (indigenous communities). The forests were highly degraded and the streams used to become dry during January-May.

Hill Flower organized all the households of each village into a formal group and established a RLF at each group by introducing a monthly savings scheme. Arannayk


Foundation contributed BDT 200,000 to the RLF of each group as grants. The project also provided training on organizational and financial management to the executive committee members of the groups and technical trainings on various AIGAs (mushroom cultivation, bee keeping, cultivation and post-harvest management of turmeric and ginger, nursery management and propagation techniques). The project beneficiaries invested their loans from the RLF in cultivation or trading of turmeric, ginger and aroids, pig rearing and various small businesses. Two of the beneficiaries established nurseries. Hill Flower distributed about 11,000 saplings of fruit trees, timber trees and medicinal plants among the project participants for planting in their homesteads and other lands. The project participants enriched diversity and density of trees in 80 ha of degraded forests by undertaking enrichment planting program with local endangered tree species.

The people of the project area are now motivated and committed to conserving the natural resources of the project area. They have stopped collecting timber and fuel wood from the forests and stones from the hill slopes and creeks. The forests are regenerating fast, making the area greener. The water flow in the streams during dry season has increased. People are now almost self-reliant and are engaged in different AIGAs.

Appreciating the approach and outcomes of the project, the Chairman of the Regional Hill Council requested AF to expand the area of the project to at least five more adjacent villages. Accordingly AF extended the activities of the project to five more villages of Wagga Union of Kaptai, Rangamati, from July 2015.


an Inspiring story

Multi-tier orchard brings prosperity to Ittuka’s family

Ittukka Chakma (48) is a poor farmer living in Voirafa Bridge Para village of Merung Union under Dighinala Upazila of Khagrachari District since his family was resettled there under a rehabilitation project of CHT Development Board when they returned from India after the signing of the CHT Peace Accord (1997). He got a 2.25 acre hilly land under the rehabilitation project for dwelling and tree farming. He, however, resorted to jhum cultivation practice in traditional way (slash and burn) after a few years the land became unproductive due to repeated cultivation without allowing fallow periods for the replenishment of soil fertility. To feed his four member family, he and his wife then restored to collecting fuel wood and honey from the forest and selling those in the nearby market on a daily basis. He had no other way to earn his living.

In 2009, Ittukka joined the ‘Akjoda and Ujjogi Forest Conservation Cooperative Association’ formed in his

village by Anando under its Arannayk Foundation funded community based bio-resource management project. He obtained trainings on different agroforestry models such as multi-tier orchard (MTO) for flat gently slopped areas, productive living fence on boundary lines and cultivation of different vegetables in different parts of the homestead. He got trainings on poultry and cow rearing too and he since then he has been contributing to the monthly savings scheme of his cooperative.

In 2010, Ittuka took a loan of BTD 10,000 from the revolving loan fund of his cooperative and established one MTO at a cost of BDT 8,000. With the remaining BDT 2,000 he leased a 15 decimal land from one of his neighbors for cultivation of vegetables. After three years, he earned BDT 26,000 from vegetable cultivation and BDT 47,000 from MTO (pineapple and litchi). In 2015, through selling the crops of his MTO, he had a profit of around BDT 70,000. He duly repaid the loan to his cooperative. He hopes to expand his agroforestry farming on a larger scale in the future.


Bringing Village coMMon

Forests under sustainaBle

ManageMent

Since 2009, AF has been supporting local NGOs to help the indigenous communities to conserve the Village Common Forests in Chittagong Hill Tracts. So far, 12 degraded VCFs have been brought under sustainable management.

context

The Village Common Forests (VCF) are natural forests that are maintained by indigenous communities around their villages with the objective of maintaining tree cover and biodiversity to protect the environment in the face of deforestation, to sustain supply of wood and bamboo required for house construction of the community members, to ensure the source of water by keeping annual and perennial springs and small rivers into sustained flow and to secure sustainable source of essential livelihood resources such as fuel wood, wild vegetables and medicinal herbs. The VCFs are managed, protected and utilized collectively by the indigenous communities under the leadership of the head of the mouza (‘Headman’) or village (‘Karbari’) or by educational or religious institutions or a committee formed by the community leaders, who govern the management according to customary rules. Jhum cultivation and hunting are strictly prohibited and all sorts of fireworks and unpermitted access are restricted in the VCFs. Harvesting of bamboo is generally done in 2-3 years intervals. The VCFs are mostly small, averaging 20-120 hectares in size.

There is no reliable statistics regarding the number of VCFs but it is assumed that it may be around 700-800 and many of them might have been lost due to encroachment, unsustainable use and conversion to other land-uses. Many of the existing ones are also either degraded or at

risks of being so due to increased population pressure, lack of proper management and lack of security of tenure.

In 2009, Arannayk Foundation undertook an initiative to contribute to the conservation of the VCFs. It undertook three projects involving three partner NGOs to deal with seven degraded or threatened VCFs – three in the Chimbuk Range of Bandarban district namely Kaprupara VCF (81 ha), Korangpara VCF (24 ha) and Empupara VCF (24 ha) involving Humanitarian Foundation and another three VCFs in Rowangchari Upazila of Bandarban namely Tulachari Para VCF (101 ha), Rowangchari Sadar Para VCF (24 ha) and Roninin Para VCF (101 ha) involving Tahzingdong and the Itchari VCF (42 ha) in Khagrachari Sadar Upazila of Khagrachari district involving BIRAM. In 2011, Arannayk Foundation launched another project for the conservation of the Komolchari VCF (127 ha) in Khagrachari Sadar Upazila of Khagrachari involving Proshika as its implementing partner.

interventions

The project activities included awareness raising of the VCF communities; participatory assessment of forest conditions and establishment of a management plan for each VCF; restoration of forest cover and biodiversity in the deforested and degraded areas of the VCFs through reforestation and enrichment planting; strengthening management capacities of the VCF management committees; and alternative livelihood development of


the VCF community members (jhum farmers). As in other projects of Arannayk Foundation, the VCF communities were encouraged to undertake participatory savings scheme and were provided with complementary grants to help them establish RLF and their members were trained in AIGA skills. The AF contributed a sum of BDT 718,220 to the Itchari VCF community, BDT 1,400,000 to the three VCF communities in the Chimbuk Range, BDT 637,000 to the three VCF communities in Rowangchari and BDT 830,000 to the Kamalchari VCF community and its partner NGOs organized various AIGA skills development trainings for the VCF members considering feasibility and profitability of the AIGAs and interests of the VCF members.

results

The interventions worked extremely well. Each VCF community established a management plan for their VCF; planted native species of trees in the denuded and degraded areas of the VCF including bamboos at the foothills; strengthened monitoring and protection measures; and established a revolving loan fund. As a result, the health of the forests (vegetation cover, biodiversity, growth of trees and bamboos) improved and flow of water in the springs and canals in the village during the dry season increased significantly. The forest dependent households adopted various alternative income generating activities and many of them converted their shifting cultivation plots to fruit orchards or multi-storey agroforestry gardens. Due to continuous accumulation of participatory savings and rapid circulation of the RLF resources, the size of the RLF has become double of the AF contribution or even more. For example, AF provided BDT 718,220 to the Itchari community in 2009 but their RLF stood at BDT 1,420,440 by September 2014. Similarly the RLF of the Kamalchari

VCF community increased to BDT 1,204,549 at the end of 2015 whereas the AF contributed only BDT 637,000 to that in late 2011. Each of the VCF communities at Itchari, Rowangchari Sadar Para and Kamalchari established a multi-purpose community house for their regular VCF management meetings and other community events. With financial support from the AF, the Tulachari VCF community established a established a Gravitational Flow System (GFS) of water collection from the VCF that brought water to their doorstep and reduced drudgery of women for water collection.

Having achieved its objectives, the project on Itchari VCF came to an end in 2014 and that on the three VCFs in the Chimbuk Range in March 2015. On the other hand, the project in Rowangchari, Bandarban (implemented by Tahzingdong) and that on the Kamalchari VCF in Khagrachari Sadar Upazila of Khagrachari (implemented by Proshika) have been extended for two more years from April 2015 in order to replicate the improved management systems in five other VCFs in Rowangchari and two other VCFs in Khagrachari Sadar, respecively.

two smaller initiatives

In 2003, AF approved two small grants (BDT 2.0 million each) to two local NGOs namely Toymu and Kabidang mainly for alternative livelihood development support to the forest dependent households of two VCFs – Gazalia VCF in Lama Upazila of Bandarban (40 ha VCF, 100 households) and Dhanpata VCF (42 ha for with 74 households) in Dighinala Upazila of Khagrachari district. Utilizing a part of the grant, Toymu helped the VCF management committee develop a management plan for the VCF and establish a multipurpose community house to use as the office of the VCF and also for other social events of the community. On the other hand, Kabidang made a participatory


assessment of the forest condition and re-vegetated the deforested part (around 8.0 ha) of the VCF by planting 16,625 trees of local species. Kabidang also distributed 375 saplings of fruit trees for planting in the homesteads of the VCF members.

patricipatory carbon measurement in VcFs

In an attempt to develop and build capacity of the VCF communities in primary data and sample collection as a part of a prospective methodology of participatory carbon estimation for the VCFs and other community managed forests under REDD Plus program, AF took a complementary project in one VCF involving a team of experts from the Institute of Forestry and Environmental science, Chittagong University (IFESCU). The expert team trained selected members of the VCF community how to

set up sample plots, measure height and girth at breast height (gbh) of tress and collect soil and biomass samples from forest floor to help experts estimate above-ground and below-ground carbon in a forest through subsequent analyses and calculations by the experts. The expert team found that the estimates derived from the primary data and soil and biomass samples collected by the VCF community members were comparable with that derived from primary data and samples collected by the members of the expert team themselves.

Based on this experience, the team of experts concluded that engaging local communities might be an appropriate and cost-effective way of sample and data collection for estimation of carbon in small scale REDD+ projects, especially for the VCFs.


alternative livelihood development of forest dependent communities saved Kamalchari vcF

The Kamalchari VCF, located in Kamalchari Union under Khagrachari Sadar Upazila of Khagrachari District used to play a crucial role in sustaining livelihood of a number of indigenous communities of the Union. The VCF is 127 hectares in size. Four streams originate from the VCF which merge to the Kamalchari canal and ultimately fall to the river Chengi. People of at least 10 villages are dependent on the water flowing through the streams and the canal for their daily needs and for irrigating their crop fields.

The VCF belongs to the Chakma community of Kamalchari village and is managed by a 17-member committee elected biennially by the 230 members of the Kamalchari community. The VCF is located at 2 km distance from the Kamalchari village. On the other hand, there are two other villages, Jadurampara and Thana Chandrapara, adjacent to the VCF, just on the other side of the Kamalchari Canal. The 96 households of these two communities used to illicitly extract trees and bamboos from the VCF. To get rid of this problem, the VCF community deployed 25 poor families from their village to the VCF as care taker and allocated two acres of degraded land in the VCF to each household for their housing and farming. But due to low and unsustainable yield of crops, 14 households left the area within a few years and only 11 households somehow continued to live there. As the poor households had to work as laborer outside the farms, it was not possible for them to guard the VCF. At one stage the VCF committee arranged to sell the standing trees of a sizeable part of the VCF to a brick field owner the latter started cutting the trees.

At this stage (in August 2011), AF and its partner NGO Proshika took up the initiative to help the community strengthen management and protection of the VCF and restore biodiversity in its degraded areas. Proshika organized the female members of Jadurampara and Thana Chandrapara villages into two self-help groups and initiated a participatory saving scheme to establish a


revolving loan fund (RLF) at each group. AF contributed BDT 50,000 and BDT 40,000 to the RLFs of Jadurampara and Thana Chandrapara, respectively. Proshika introduced the monthly savings scheme in the Kamalchari community too and subsequently contributed BDT 500,000 to their RLF. Proshika arranged a number of AIGA skills trainings for the members of the three communities, who undertook various AIGAs such as cattle, goat and pig rearing; cultivation of vegetables and fruit trees; rice cultivation in the valley and handicrafts production. With the help of the project, the VCF members planted more than 10,000 trees in the degraded parts of the VCF, including around 2,200 fruit trees in the buffer zone of the VCF for income generation of the 11 care-taker households.

In 2015, each caretaker household earned BDT 5,000 - 6000 from selling mango and bamboo from agroforestry gardens. Now they spend most of their time in taking care of their agroforestry gardens. The members of Jadurampara and Thana Chandrapara groups, including their other family members, are likewise engaged in various AIGAs. As a result, illegal cutting of trees and bamboos from the VCF has almost stopped. On the other hand, the Kamalchari community sold BDT 500,000 worth of bamboos in 2015 to celebrate the platinum jubilee (100 years) of the Kamalchari High School. This was possible due to abundant regeneration undisturbed growth of the bamboos.


gFs support inspired tulachari community to conserve their vcF

In the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, many indigenous communities have been conserving patches of natural forests mainly to ensure consistent flow of water in the springs and canals round the year and supply of bamboo and wood for construction of houses of the community members. These forests are called Village Common Forests (VCF) or ‘Para Ban’ or ‘Mouza Bon’. Due to lack of proper management, most of the VCFs are now degraded and the indigenous communities are facing water scarcity. They need to travel long distances to streams and rivers to collect water which is often polluted and causes water-borne diseases. The responsibility of collecting water is generally on the women and children of the families.

Tulachari community members of Rowangchari Upazilla in Bandarban were also experiencing the same problem. To reduce their stress through ensuring an easily accessible and consistent water supply and to motivate them to conserve their VCF, AF supported the Tulachari community to establish a Gravitational Flow System (GFS) of water collection from the VCF in June 2010 under Community-based conservation of village common forest in Rowangchari, Bandarban project, implemented by a local NGO, Tahzingdong. The GFS involves collection of water by constructing a check dam in an up-hill position in the forest and channeling the water to a reservoir in the village through pipeline using the natural force of gravity. Water from the reservoir is dispensed either directly through taps installed with it or to the households through pipeline using gravitational force.

With this support, around 250 people of 47 households of Tulachari village gained access to a safe and secured supply of drinking water. This has given a huge relief to the women and children of Tulachari who had to spend several hours for collecting drinking water. The community has realized the importance of the natural forest and its relation with fresh water. They reforested the degraded areas of their VCF through enrichment planting, using local tree species. As a result, the degraded Tulachari forest has now regained a healthier condition. The community members now look after the VCF including proper management of the GFS.

tulachari VcF, 2010

tulachari VcF, 2015


participatorY restoration and conserVation oF

sWaMp Forests

Arannayk Foundation has been promoting restoration, conservation and community based management of degraded swamp forests in the haors of Sunmaganj since 2009. Based on successful outcome of the first initiative in two areas, the program has been extended to four other areas of the district from 2014.

context

The Haor (wetland) region that spans over seven districts in the northeast of Bangladesh accounts for one-sixth of the total area of the country. The entire landscape, except the artificially raised homesteads, called ‘hati’ remains under water from May through October (rainy season). There are some patches of medium low land, called ‘kanda’, where the depth of flooding during rainy season remains limited to 1-1.5 m. In different places of the haor area, there are patches of swamp forests on these kanda lands. In a recent study, CNRS recorded 59 swamp forests from 5 of 11 Upazilas of Sunamganj district. The size of the forests ranged from 6 – 56 ha, with an average of 20 ha. Perhaps there are many smaller patches (less than 0.5 ha) of such forests here and there in the haor areas which were not recorded.

The swamp forests are locally called ‘Hijol-Koroch Bagh’ as Hijal (Barringtonia acutangula) and Koroch (Pongamia pinnata) are the dominant tree species of these forests. There also occur some other tree species such as Barun (Crataevan urvala), Jarul (Legerstromea spaciosa), Pitali/gotagamar (Trwia nudiflora) and Rain tree (Albizia saman) and a number of annual and perennial herbs such as Nol (Arundo donax), Khagra (Phragmites karka), Ban Golap (Rosa involucratia), Ban Tulshi (Ocimum americanum), Shatamuli (Asparagus spp.) and Chaila grass (Hemarthria protensa). The swamp forest goes under water during

rainy season and remains submerged for 6 -7 months (May – October/ November).

The swamp forests play a crucial role in protecting the homesteads of people from erosion caused by wave action of water aside from their other ecosystem services such as shelter to numerous species of local and migratory birds and feed and breeding ground for fishes. But due to lack of proper management and protection measures, many of the swamp forest are now highly degraded and most of the remaining ones are in highly degraded condition. The study conducted by CNRS found that only 22% of the 59 swamp forests were in good condition (well-stocked) while 54% were degraded and 24% completely deforested. The study further revealed that 63% of the swamp forests were ‘Khas’ lands (state owned land under administrative control of the Deputy Commissioner of the district), 30% ‘Ejmali’(owned collectively by the heirs of a common ancestor), 2% individually owned private and 5% were of partly Khas and partly Ejmali lands. Most of the forests in the Khas lands are either degraded or completely deforests mainly due to inappropriate leasing system of water bodies. The lease holders harvest fish as well as trees for maximizing profit within leasing period and because of this, after the leasing period, one can hardly find any swamp forest in the wet land. Community’s fuel wood dependency is another major cause of these forests’ degradation.


interventions

In 2009, Arannayk Foundation undertook a pilot project in two Upazilas of Sunamganj district involving the Center for Natural Resource Studies (CNRS) to develop effective strategies for restoring and conserving the denuded and degraded swamp forests involving local communities. The piloting sites were Rahimapur Bagh (44 ha) in Jamalganj Upazila and Gobindapur Bagh (22 ha) in Sunamganj Sadar Upazila of Sunamganj district.

The Rahimapaur Bagh was a khash land. CNRS mobilized the poor households of seven villages in the vicinity of this degraded forest to form community based organizations (CBO) and, by motivating the Deputy Commissioner of Sunamganj, arranged a 10-year lease of the targeted lands in favor of them (CBOs). On the other hand, the Gobindapur Bagh was an Ejmali land and CNRS arranged a similar lease (for 10 years) of this forest from the authorized representative of the owners of the Ejmali land to a similar CBO formed at Gobindapur. With the help of Arannayk Foundation and CNRS, the CBOs developed a sustainable management plan for each forest. To develop institutional and management technical capacities of the project participants, CNRS provided training on organizational and leadership development to the CBO leaders and training on swamp forest management to the general participants. To promote alternative income generating activities, CNRS also provided training on vegetable gardening to the CBO members.

results

By 2014, Rahimapur and Gobindapur forests were successfully restored and are being conserved by local communities. The project participants planted around 45,000 Hijal and Koroch trees in 24 hectares of degraded areas of the two forests. The forests became densely

covered with trees. The project participants also planted 12,560 saplings of fruit, timber and fuel wood yielding trees in their homesteads to reduce their dependence on the swamp forests.

Based on the success of the first initiative, Arannayk Foundation started expanding the program in four other swamp forests (with a total area of 82 hectares) – two in Biswamvarpur and two in Taherpur Upazila from April 2015 using the same approach and the same implementing partner. CNRS organized the poorest and highly forest dependent people of the villages nearest to the selected forests into four groups (CBO) and guided them to apply to the DC of Sunamganj for granting them lease of the selected forests. Convinced by the good outcome of the earlier initiative of Arannayk Foundation and CNRS, the DC cancelled the current (unsatisfactory) lease of the four swamp forests and initiated process to allot the same to the AF and CNRS backed CBOs. In 2005 the concerned CBOs planted around 50,600 Hijal and Koroch trees in 50 hectares of the four new sites.


an Inspiring story

asim shows the way to conserving the swamp forest to his neighbors

Asim Talukder (40) of Sholachura village under Beheli Union of Sunamganj Sadar Upazila in Sunamganj district was a day laborer. He had to work hard to feed his family. He had a small amount of land but he had to mortgage that for the treatment of his parents. Destiny was quite harsh on him. He could not repay the debt and get his land back. For ensuring three times meal for his family, Asim was highly dependent on cutting trees from the Hijol-Koroch swamp forests.

Asim was always looking for a way out of such living and earning a better source of income. When he heard about the Arannayk Foundation funded Swamp Forest Restoration (SFR) project of CNRS, he eagerly contacted the latter and expressed his interest to join the project. As soon as the community based organization (CBO) named ‘Rahimapur-Hariharpur Bon O Paribesh Unnyan Vittik Krishi Somobay Somiti Limited’ was established, he became a participant of the project.

After being involved in the project, Asim got several trainings on vegetable cultivation, nursery entrepreneurship development and sustainable management and conservation of swamp forest. The trainings motivated and inspired him to doing something better than illegally cutting trees from the swamp forests. He took a small piece of land (5 decimal) on lease from one of his neighbors for cultivating chilli along with potato and garlic. He spent only BDT 1,000 for land preparation, irrigation, net fencing and manure. During the winter season of 2014-15, Asim earned BDT 10,650 by selling 400 kg of chilies, 60 kg of potatoes and 15 kg of garlic produced in that small piece of land.

Inspired by the activities of Asim, his neighbors, who also used to cut trees from the swamp forest, started engaging in such profitable agricultural activities on their own. Asim says, “Now we know how to make a living without cutting trees from the ‘bagh’ (swamp forest). The bagh won’t be damaged anymore”. Asim feels proud for being an inspiration to his neighbors. He is thankful to CNRS and Arannayk Foundation for providing him motivational and technical supports that changed his way of life.


Arannayk foundation has been supporting Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Chittagong University since 2006 for developing effective means and ways to conserving and restoring endangered tress species of Bangladesh.

conserVation oF threatened tree

species

Arannayk foundation has been supporting Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Chittagong University (IFESCU) since 2006 for developing effective means and ways to conserving and restoring threatened and endangered tree species of Bangladesh. The research team made an exploratory survey of major forests in the hilly areas in the east and southeast of Bangladesh (Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Cox’s Bazar and greater Sylhet districts), and identified 63 endangered native tree species of which 25 are critically endangered. The research team located the remaining individual trees or stands of the selected threatened species and collected seeds or scions from those trees for propagation and conservation. Through trials at the IFESCU nursery, the research team developed propagation protocols and nursery practices for those species and subsequently planted their seedlings Chittagong University campus. So far, the research team has planted seedlings of 56 endangered native tree species in Chittagong University campus which will be the source of seeds and research works for the students in near future.

list of threatened and rare species planted and conserved in chittagong university campus

Sl. No. Species Local name

1 Anisoptera scaphula Boilam

2 Aphanamixis polystachya Pitraj

3 Artocarpus lacucha Borta, Dewa

4 Aquilaria malacescens Agar

5 Bhesa robusta Bhesa

6 Bischofia javanica Kanjal bhadi

7 Bombax insigne Ban Simul

8 Brownlowia elata Moos

9 Calophyllum inophyllum Ponyal

10 Canariumr esiniferum Dhup, Pairag

11 Cassia fistula Sonalu

12 Castanopsis indica Shil Batna

13 Chukrasia tabularis Chikrassy

14 Cinnamomum iners Tez-bohol

15 Cordia dichotoma Bohal

16 Cycas pectinata Cycas

17 Derris robusta Joijja

18 Dipterocarpus alatus Dhullya-garjan

19 Dipterocarpus costatus Baittya-garjan

20 Dipterocarpus turbinatus Teli-garjan

21 Duabanga grandiflora Bandarhaula



22 Elaeocarpus tectorius Titpai

23 Engelhardtia spicata Jhumka Bhadi

24 Entada scandens Gila lota

25 Firmiana colorata Ujal, Pata-gota

26 Gardenia coronaria Konnari

27 Haldina cordifolia Haldu

28 Hopea odorata Telsur

29 Hydnocarpus kurzii Chalmugra

30 Hymenodictyon orixensis Bhutum

31 Lagerstroemia parvifloia SidhaJarul

32 Lithocarpus acuminata Kala Batna

33 Litsea monopetala Menda

34 Lophopetalum wightianum Raktan

35 Mallotus philippinensis Sinduri

36 Mangifera sylvatica Uri-Aam

37 Oroxylum indicum Kanaidinga

38 Palaquim polyanthum Tali

39 Podocarpus nerifolius Banspata

40 Protium serratum Gutgutya

41 Pterospermum acerifolium Muchakunda

42 Pterospermum semisagittatum Lana-Assar


43 Pterygota alata Narikeli

44 Sapindus saponaria Rita

45 Saraca asoca Ashok

46 Scaphium scaphigerum Shampan

47 Schima wallichii Kanak

48 Schleichera oleosa Kusum

49 Spondias pinnata Ban Amra

50 Sterculia foetida Box badam

51 Sterculia villosa Udal

52 Stereospermum colais Dharmara

53 Stereospermum suaveolens Parul

54 Swintonia floribunda Civit

55 Syzygium firmum Dhaki Jam

56 Terminalia bellerica Bahera

57 Terminalia chebula Haritaki

58 Tetrameles nudiflora Chundul

59 Toona ciliata Toon

60 Vitex glabrata Goda, Horina

61 Vitex peduncularis Arsol

62 Xylia xylocarpa Lohakath

63 Zanthoxylum rhetsa Bazna


educating neW generation For

BiodiVersitY conserVation

Arannayk Foundation has undertaken innovative environmental education programs for the students of secondary schools in its project areas to help in the conservation of forests and biodiversity assets of the respective areas through awareness raising and motivation of their parents and community leaders.

Educating schoolchildren about the biodiversity resources and ecosystem services of the forests in their respective areas through extra-curricular activities constitute an important strategy of Arannayk’s community based forest conservation projects. Arannayk Foundation has undertaken this strategy considering the fact that the students are not only the prospective future leaders of the nation but also a powerful agent of change in their respective families.

The main approach that Arannayk Foundation has used for this purpose since 2010 involves establishing “Eco Clubs” in the secondary schools located in the vicinities of the forests involving the interested students under the supervision of their teachers. Project staff of AF’s partner NGOs organize a monthly session at each school and teach the Eco-club members about the biodiversity resources and ecosystem services of the local forests, role of forests in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and ways to conserving the forests including planting and taking care of trees. The Eco-club members are encouraged and supported to organize environmental awareness campaigns including observance of World Environment Day, International Day of Forests and the like in their localities. With support from Arannayk Foundation, a team of Wildlife Experts from the Zoology Department of Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka developed an interesting teaching module (“Learn through Games”) for conducting environmental education sessions for the schoolchildren and demonstrated its

application in some special sessions organized by the staff of Arannayk’s partner NGO, SHED. The children liked the method and tools very much.

To make the school program more effective and sustainable beyond the project period, Arannayk Foundation has initiated a teachers’ training program from 2015. The program involves publishing a pictorial book on the biodiversity assets, ecosystem services and conservation needs of specific forests and providing training to the teachers of the secondary schools of respective areas on how they could use that book as a reference material in teaching Environmental Science and other relevant courses in their schools. After its successful testing in Chunati project in 2015, the program is now being replicated in other project areas of Arannayk Foundation.

The book prepared and published for the Chunati project is titled ‘Amader Chunati Bon’ (Our Chunati Forest) and contains seven chapters. The first two chapters deal with general concepts regarding nature, environment, forest, wildlife and biodiversity; the next four chapters describe the basic features (area, management structure, etc.) and biodiversity resources of Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary with brief description of some of the important plants and animals of the sanctuary; and the last chapter describes the importance of the forest for reducing risks of climate change. Before finalizing the book, the content of the book were validated by 20 teachers from 10 secondary schools located around the wildlife through a 3-day


training workshop. In this training workshop, the norms and methods of using the book were also developed through participatory discussions. Subsequently the book was distributed to 2,000 students of those 10 schools. After its successful testing in Chunati project in 2015, the program is now being replicated in other project areas of Arannayk Foundation.

program for college & university students

Arannayk Foundation also contributes to higher studies in environmental education. To help under-graduate and

graduate University students gain practical knowledge and experience in forest and biodiversity conservation works, Arannayk Foundation hosts interns and researchers. So far, AF has hosted four undergraduate and two post-graduate students as interns and seven post-graduate students to conduct their thesis work.

In late 2014, Arannayk Foundation organized an inter-university environmental reporting competition to contribute to capacity development of Forestry and Environmental Science/Management students in writing articles on environmental issues and development initiatives for print media. Students from four Universities, Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences of Chittagong University (IFESCU), Forestry and Wood Science Discipline of Khulna University, Shahjalal Science and Technology University of Sylhet and Independent University of Bangladesh participated in this competition. In October 2015, Arannayk Foundation organized a prize giving ceremony with the help of its communication partner Bangla Communications Limited to award the winning team.


an Inspiring story

schoolchildren raise funds for environmental conservation using oxygen box!

The “Oxygen Box” is a project of the “Eco-clubs” that Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) has established in two secondary schools in Banshkhali, Chittagong under the environmental education program of their Arannayk Foundation supported “Restoration and Conservation of Denuded Hills” project. The “Oxygen Box” is a donation box set up in the corridor of the school along with a message that trees produce oxygen for the survival of

human beings and that the donations put in this box would be used for planting trees and environmental conservation activities of the Eco-club. Aside from the students of the school, anybody can also contribute to this fund. The members of the two Eco-clubs launched this innovative project from September 2015 and by December 2015 they collected around BDT 3,000 through the Oxygen Boxes. With that money the Eco-club members have set up 200 clay pots on trees with the idea that birds would use those as nesting place. The Eco Club members have also taken initiatives to collect used and thrown off PET bottles to create a hanging garden using those recycled bottles as pots for ornamental plants.


the Big picture: cuMulatiVe

iMpacts

Through 100 grants and technical backstopping support delivered to 71 implementing entities and 55 grants directly to forest dependent communities under 38 projects in last ten years, Arannayk Foundation has made significant impacts towards improving conservation of some important but threatened biodiversity assets of Bangladesh.

Through 100 grants and technical support delivered to 71 implementing entities and 55 grants directly to forest dependent communities under 38 projects during 2006-2015, Arannayk Foundation has made significant impact towards improving conservation of some of the important but threatened biodiversity hotspots and endangered tree species of Bangladesh. Aside from the conservation impacts, the AF has made significant impacts on poverty reduction, empowerment of women and indigenous communities, reduction of CO2 emission and improvement of resilience of coastal communities.

alternative livelihood development of forest dependent communities

By establishing community-managed revolving loan funds (RLF), Arannayk Foundation has created an access for around 15,000 poor forest dependent households to soft loans for undertaking alternative income generating activities. As of December 2015, the RLF of 428 Community based Organizations (CBOs) of the Arannayk beneficiaries totaled BDT 102 million (including BDT 80 million grants from the AF and BDT 22 million raised by the CBOs through participatory savings schemes and other service charges or interests on loans). During this period, about 12,800 poor forest dependent people took loan from the RLF. The borrowers invested the loans in various income generating activities such as vegetable cultivation, leasing land for cultivation of rice and other crops, cow rearing, beef fattening, poultry rearing, fish cultivation,

handicrafts making, buying rickshaw van and varieties of small businesses. Through effective use of the RLF loans, the borrowers have been able to improve their economic conditions and payback their loans on time. The rate of repayment of RLF loans is over 95%. Due to the adoption of the AIGAs, the average annual income of the Arannayk project beneficiaries increased by 96% in the projects on co-management of protected areas and reserved forest, 47% in the projects in CHT and 125% in the project on swamp forest in 5-6 years and 38% in CRPARP in just two years. Some beneficiaries who had started with one AIGA such as vegetable cultivation, poultry rearing, goat rearing or a grocery shop, have now diversified their income generating activities by adopting other AIGAs too. Collection of forest resources from public forests by the Arannayk project beneficiaries reduced drastically due their increased income from AIGAs.

institutional development of community based conservation organizations

Through the support of the AF, around 15,000 poor forest dependent households are now organized as self-help groups at their respective villages and, in most of the places, the village-level groups have formed their federations at the Union level. Altogether there are 428 village-level groups and 80 Union federations. Twenty-one of the Union federations have got registration from the Department of Cooperatives and the remaining ones are also in the process of getting registered. Arannayk


Foundation also has established Co-management Councils and Co-management Committees (CMC) in five reserved forests, three of which are now national parks (protected areas). Twenty-five of such AF-supported community based organizations (village-level group, Union Federation, CMC) have constructed their permanent office buildings (with support from the AF), which are also treated as multi-purpose community houses. Aside from meetings and other activities of the CBOs, these multi-purpose community houses are also used for various social events and development activities such as holding medical and vaccination camps, non-formal primary education and training programs and various social events. These houses are also used as shelters during disasters and as temporary lodging house for school students coming from the villages for public examinations.

adoption of improved cooking stoves by rural households

To reduce the fuel wood needs of its project beneficiaries, AF has been promoting the use of Improved Cooking Stoves (ICS) among them. By 2015, AF helped 10,019 forest dependent households to adopt ICS. The use of ICS reduces household fuel wood requirement by 50%. As a rural household in Bangladesh consumes 90 kg fuel wood per month on average (according to a published research paper), the ICSs adopted by the beneficiaries of Arannayk projects save 5,410 tons of fuel wood and thus 9,918 tons of CO2 emission per year (as 50% of dry weight of wood is Carbon and CO2 = 3.6667 x Weight of Carbon).

improvement of homestead agroforestry in forest dependent households

Arannayk’s motivational campaign, training and input support enabled most of its project participants to plant diverse species of fruit trees, timber and fuel wood yielding trees, vegetables and medicinal plants in available spaces of their homesteads in all of its project areas. At least 1.5 million trees have been planned by around 15,000 households in the last 10 years. The most notable achievements can be observed in Dighinala Upazilla of Khagrachari hill district, where 235 indigenous households have developed multi-tier orchards in their homesteads and adjacent fallow lands. They have planted 58,264 fruit trees, 63,162 timber trees and 27,250 bamboos in such lands in the last 5-6 years. As a result, the once shifting cultivators are now getting most of their daily livelihood necessities from their homesteads and the forest visits


for collection of fuel wood and other forest products have reduced by more than 50%.

restoration of tree cover in deforested and degraded forest areas

During 2009-2013, Arannayk Foundation helped Bangladesh Forest Department to restore the forest cover in the denuded and degraded areas of three protected areas and two reserve forests. Similarly, it helped local communities of CHT and swamp forest areas to restore forest cover in the denuded and degraded areas of 10 village common forests, 11 places (villages) of USF lands and 5 swamp forests during 2009-2015. Altogether around 4.5 million trees of local species have been planted over in the degraded areas of the above forests that cover 27,784 hectares of forest land in total.

improved protection of public forests

The establishment of co-management system and community patrol groups in three protected areas and three reserved forests has resulted in better protection of those forests from illegal extraction of forest resources. Thirty-two CPGs with a total of 826 community patrollers are active in patrolling those forests jointly with the Forest

Guards under the supervision of the respective Beat officers of the Forest Department. Illegal forest resource extraction from those protected areas and reserved forests has reduced by 30-60% in last 5 - 6 years.

Similarly, the establishment of 21 CPGs under the BCCRF funded climate resilient participatory afforerstation and reforestation project has brought 1,050 hectares of new plantations as well as the old plantations and natural forests around them in 21 forest Beats in the districts of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali, Patuakhali and Barguna under improved protection. Tree density in the existing plantations and natural forests in those Beats has increased in last two years due to successful retention of naturally regenerated trees.

In order to sustain motivation and devotion of the CPG members, both AF and FD have taken certain steps towards supporting livelihood of the CPG members. FD gives priority to those people in selecting beneficiaries for social forestry programs while the AF provides them special grants to develop group enterprises as sources of secured livelihood. Moreover, community patrollers usually get priority in receiving loan from the RLF of the Community Based Organizations.


conservation of endangered native tree species of Bangladesh

By identifying the remaining mother trees in forests and ex-situ conservation sites, developing propagation protocols and establishing seed stands at Chittagong University campus, IFESCU has saved 63 endangered native tree species of Bangladesh forests from the threat of extinction. The IFESCU has also distributed seedlings of some those species to Forest Department, BFRI, some NGOs and private-sector organizations for planting in degraded forests and other institutional and private lands.

empowerment of women

Considering the importance of involvement of women for sustainable livelihood development of rural households and also for conservation of forest resources, Arannayk Foundation always emphasizes on active participation and empowerment of women in its community based forest conservation projects. More than 60% of the total project participants of Arannayk projects are women, who were selected from the most distressed and highly forest dependent households, with special priority given to ethnic minorities and female-headed households. Aside from technical skill development and input support for alternative income generating activities, Arannayk Foundation provides leadership and organizational development and management (ODM) trainings to the women project participants along with their male counterparts. It also makes sure that there is adequate representation of women in the executive committees of the village-level groups and Union-level federations of the project beneficiaries. Women representatives constitute 48% of the total executive committee members of the community based organizations of forest dependent people organized by the Arannayk projects. Thanks to the Arannayk capacity building support, these women are

now not only able to perform their decision making and management roles in their group and federations but they have also strengthened their position in the society as well.

The capacity building interventions of the Arannayk Foundation have also developed entrepreneurial capacities of the women which are evident from their ability to take, utilize and repay RLF loans. Most of the RLF borrowers are women and the rate of repayment of the loans by them is almost 100 per cent. The women generally invest their loans in such micro-enterprises as grocery shop, small tea stall, cattle fattening, poultry rearing, vegetable cultivation and handicrafts production. These women are now self-reliant and are making significant contribution to the livelihood of their family. By reducing their dependence on collection of forest resources, the AIGAs have been contributing to the conservation of the forests too. Arannayk’s steps to promote improved cooking stoves (ICS) among its project beneficiaries has not only reduced the consumption of fuel wood but also aiding in securing a better health for women by reducing incidence of respiratory diseases amongst them by keeping their kitchen smoke-free.


an Inspiring story:

Private company extends csr support to arannayk Project beneficiaries

Motivated by the effectiveness of some of the Arannayk Foundation funded participatory forest conservation projects, Bangladesh Steel Rerolling Mills Ltd. (BSRM) provided some small grants to the implementing entities and beneficiaries of those projects under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program for the scaling-up of the successful approaches or for welfare support to the project beneficiaries. BSRM contributed BDT 400,000 to the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) of two village conservation forums (forest dependent groups) of the ‘Restoration and Conservation of Denuded Hills in Sitakunda and Mirsarai, Chittagong’ project, implemented by YPSA and BDT 500,000 to Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) for establishment of a bio-briquette factory (to reduce fuel wood collection from the forest) in the working area of a similar project in Banshkhali, Chittagong implemented by the latter. The bio-briquette factory will engage 20 sales agents (retailers) from among the beneficiaries of the project and the factory will be handed over to the Sadhonpur Union Federation of the Village Conservation Forums (Banshkhali) when it will be fully operational. Furthermore, BSRM gave BDT 2.0 million to Uttaran, one of the implementing partners of the BCCRF-funded project of Arannayk Foundation (Livelihood component of CRPARP) from its CSR fund to establish 25 deep tube wells (DTW) in the coastal districts of Barisal, Bhola, Barguna and Patuakhali to create access of the 25 forest dependent communities to safe drinking water.


Finance

Arannayk Foundation maintains high level of efficiency in delivering its grant making and technical support services. In 2015, its core expenses and program support costs accounted for only 10% and 2% of its total spending, respectively and the remaining 90% was disbursed as grants.


Arannayk Foundation strives to maintain high level of efficiency in delivering its grant making and technical support services by keeping its core expenses (staff salary, rents, utilities, operation and maintenance of vehicles, etc.) and program support (technical assistance to grantees) as low as possible. In FY 2014-15, the total spending of Arannayk Foundation amounted to BDT 182.16 million, only 10% of which was spent for its core expenses and another 2% for technical support to the grantees, while 88% was awarded as grants to different organizations or entities for implementation of 19 projects.

Arannayk Foundation follows the International Accounting Standards (IAS) as well as Bangladesh Accounting Standards (BAS) for the financial management within a strong internal control framework. The financial statements are prepared in accordance with international reporting standard that strives for excellence and transparency in financial reporting. All the financial and human resources information of the foundation is managed through a web based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at different cost centers. It helps in improving the program efficiency, enhancing management decision-making capabilities, and promoting transparency and accountability.

As part of its monitoring and internal control mechanism, AF equips the implementing entities of its projects with a simple Grant Management Software (GMS). The GMS keeps track of all the grants disbursed by the foundation and expenditure made by the implementing entities with quarterly budgetary control.

Owing to the depletion of its TFCA resources (sinking fund), in 2015, Arannayk Foundation resorted more to funds mobilized from other donors. The amount of fund that it received or generated from different sources in 2014-15 was BDT 153.12 million. Only 10.45% of it came from the TFCA grant of the US Government, while 58.99% came from BCCRF, 5.53% from GIZ, 0.24% from ICIMOD and 0.02% from interest on fixed deposits (SND accounts). In case of grant disbursement during the year which amounted to a total of BDT 172.21 million, 18.14% was from TFCA, 76.11% from BCCRF, 5.74% from GIZ grants.


arannayK FoUndatIonBALANCE SHEET AS AT JUNE 30, 2015

Particulars 30/06/2015 30/06/2014

assets:

Fixed and Intangible Assets 939,660.00 841,903.00

(At cost less Depreciation)

current assets: 453,068,106.07 482,490,120.42

Cash and Cash Equivalent 395,428,686.86 445,595,241.71

Advances & Prepayments 57,639,419.21 36,894,878.71

total assets: 454,007,766.07 483,332,023.42

Fund:

Tropical Forest Conservation Fund 443,491,305.66 472,533,861.42

current Liabilities: 10,516,460.41 10,798,162.00

Accounts Payable - -

Accumulated Staff Benefits 10,516,460.41 10,798,162.00

total equity & Liabilities 454,007,766.07 483,332,023.42

a. waHab & co.Chartered Accountants


arannayK FoUndatIonINCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNTFOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2015

Particulars 30/06/2015 30/06/2014

Income:

Operating Income - -

total Income: - -

expenditure

core expenses 18,300,861.80 19,021,005.80

Personnel Expenses 13,464,075.00 14,677,079.00

Operational Expenses 4,836,786.80 4,343,926.80

Program expenses 163,857,271.00 94,348,300.00

Grant Awards 160,998,979.00 92,671,496.00

Program Support Expense 2,858,292.00 1,676,804.00

total expenditure 182,158,132.80 113,369,305.80

excess of Income over expenditure (182,158,132.80) (113,369,305.80)



arannayK FoUndatIonSCHEDULE OF FUNDAS AT JUNE 30, 2015

Particulars of Funds as of 01-Jul-2014addition during

the yearas of 30-Jun-2015

1. Funds received 974,862,306.15 153,115,577.04 1,127,977,883.19

TFCA grants from US Government 523,654,967.57 15,995,094.60 539,650,062.17

LDFC-CWS grant from GIZ 35,718,282.67 8,626,197.74 44,344,480.41

CRPARP grant from BCCRF-World Bank 42,559,314.00 90,324,319.00 132,883,633.00

CHT capacity building grant from ICIMOD 2,614,066.25 359,968.90 2,974,035.15

Income from investments in FDR 363,390,006.65 37,780,747.21 401,170,753.86

Interest from SND Account 6,093,365.74 29,249.59 6,122,615.33

Overhead from projects 194,654.00 0.00 194,654.00

Fund from other sources 637,649.27 0.00 637,649.27

2. Less: Income tax 55,850,401.00 0.00 55,850,401.00

3. Less: excess of expenditure over Income 446,478,043.73 182,158,132.80 628,636,176.53

4. closing balance of Fund ( 1 - 2 - 3 ) 472,533,861.42 443,491,305.66


arannayk team

Board of Directors of Arannayk Foundation

Ishtiaq Uddin ahmad, Chaircountry representative, iucn Bangladesh

Former chief conservator of Forests, Bangladesh Forest department

abdullah al Mohshin chowdhuryAdditional Secretary, MOEF

(Representative of the Govt. of Bangladesh)

dr. Mihir Kanti MajumderChairman, PalliSanchay Bank

Former Secretary, Govt. of Bangladesh

dr. niaz ahmed KhanProfessor, Department of Development Studies,

University of Dhaka

Ms. Janina JaruzelskiMission Director, USAID (Representative of the Govt. of USA)

barrister raja devasish royChakma Raja andChairperson of Taungya, Rangamati

dr. Mohammed JashimuddinProfessor, Institute of Forestry & Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong

Arannayk Foundation(Bangladesh Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation)House-21 (Apt- 2D)Western Road, DOHSBanani, Dhaka-1206Tel: 880-2-8711240, 8715116Fax: 880-2-8711592Email: [email protected]: www.arannayk.org

Documents

seeding hopes in the coast, hills and haorsarannayk.org/pdf/annual_report/af_annualreport_2015.pdfseeding hopes in the coast, hills and haors . seeding hopes in the coast, ... organization