promotingpromoting alternativealternative llivelihoodivelihood forfor forestforest conservationconservation Arannayk Foundation Annual Report 2010 Arannayk Foundation Annual Report 2010 1 Promoting Alternative Livelihood for Forest Conservation Arannayk Foundation Annual Report 2010 Report Writing Mohd. Abdul Quddus Mohammad Shawkat Hossain Abedul Haque Chowdhury Editing Mohd. Abdul Quddus Farid Uddin Ahmed Desktop Publication (DTP) Anirudha Alam Mohd. Abdul Quddus Photo Credit Arannayk Foundation Center for Natural Resource Studies (CNRS) Department of Zoology (Wildlife Branch), Jahangirnagar University Humanitarian Foundation Sabalambi Unnayan Samity (SUS) Society for Health Extension and Development (SHED) Tahzingdong Yong Power in Social Action (YPSA) © Arannayk Foundation Published on June 2011 Published by Arannayk Foundation Dhaka, Bangladesh Printed by Classic Inn Dhaka, Bangladesh MESSAGE 2010 was a productive year for the Arannayk Foundation, adding six new projects to its portfolio, expanding biodiversity monitoring systems, and approving a new 5-year strategic plan defining the path of its institutional development and focus of interventions. By approving the strategic plan, the Board of Directors adopted ‘alternative livelihood development’ of the forest dependent communities as a key strategy for conserving and restoring forests and forest biodiversity. As such, almost all field-based projects included a provision for establishing a revolving fund for the community-based organizations to support alternative income generating (AIG) activities for their members. Access to revolving funds in most of the projects was linked to planting indigenous trees at own cost either in homestead or marginal land. Almost 50% of the participants of all the community-based forest and biodiversity conservation projects of Arannayk Foundation are now engaged in various AIG activities. As a result, incomes have increased and extraction of forest resources has decreased significantly. A discussion of a few of the interesting case studies is included in Chapter-4 (Spotlight) of this report. With six new projects launched in 2010, Arannayk Foundation’s program expanded further from 21 ongoing activities to 27. Aside from the increased scale of operation, the new projects have added exciting new dimensions to Arannayk’s reach. Three of the new projects involved direct funding of community-based organizations (Co-management Councils) engaged in participatory management and conservation of protected areas. Another project, implemented by a joint team of wildlife biologists from Jahangirnagar University and botanists from Dhaka University, is conducting biodiversity monitoring in protected forest areas of Bangladesh with the aim to establish a web-based database of flora and fauna of Bangladesh forests. Another new project is focused on communication interventions for raising mass awareness on forest and biodiversity conservation using print and electronic media with nation-wide coverage. The other new project contributes to human resource development for biodiversity conservation activities through training and study tours for project implementing staff of various local community organizations. Ongoing projects, addressing the biodiversity conservation needs of the degraded public forests, homestead forests and the climate change affected coastal areas of Bangladesh, also made important progress and achievements. The successful restoration of two critically endangered tree species of the hill forests of Bangladesh (Civit and Banshpata) by the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences of Chittagong University (IFESCU) is worth mentioning. Five projects in Chittagong Hill Tracts generated a great deal of interest and enthusiasm among the indigenous communities and local authorities in favor of conservation of the rich biodiversity assets of the region through adoption of alternative livelihood and sustainable natural resource management practices. Arannayk Foundation, its partner NGOs and the Bangladesh Government Forest Department worked together to establish collaborative management systems in five reserved forests that are expected to be converted to protected areas. This partnership is the beginning of an activity to develop a satellite image based system of monitoring forest health in project areas. While the Foundation’s programs are progressing well and have already attained an appreciable scale, they are still dependent on a single source of income which is anticipated to be exhausted by 2017. Therefore, the Foundation’s future challenge is to secure funding from other sources to expand the successful approaches of the projects into wider areas. During 2011 and beyond, the Board will aggressively pursue opportunities to collaborate with other organizations to help conserve the tropical forests and forest biodiversity of Bangladesh. Mid-2011 marked the end of my four-year assignment in Bangladesh. I have had a tremendously positive experience in this wonderful country and have learned so much more about development, partnership and resiliency. Bangladesh, while filled with challenges, has incredible opportunities for success. With the type of professionalism and commitment that I have witnessed first- hand in this country, I am confident that progress will continue to be made throughout this beautiful land to benefit the citizens of Bangladesh. I appreciate the capable staff and the Board members of the Arannyak Foundation for their continued dedication to conserving and preserving Bangladesh’s remaining forests and biodiversity. Denise Rollins Chair, Board of Directors FOREWORD During 2010, the Arannayk Foundation (AF) provided six new grants of which three for livelihood support to forest dependent groups in Lawachara, Satchari and Rema-Kalenga and one for biodiversity monitoring of six protected areas, one for capacity building of partner NGOs staff and the other for awareness raising on forest conservation through a communication organization. In addition, there were 21 ongoing projects since 2009 encompassing five co-management projects, seven community based forest conservation in Chittagong Hill Tracts and Haor areas, three projects on homestead biodiversity conservation, two on coastal biodiversity conservation, two on community based conservation of medicinal plants and two projects on restoration of critically endangered species. The details of the projects are described in chapter 3. Some of the key lessons include a) improvement of livelihood can significantly contribute in forest conservation, b) once community members are effectively motivated to conserve forests, they take active role in forest conservation including prevention of collection of fuelwood and debris (leaves) from forest floors; c) vegetable cultivation in the homestead is one of the most effective IGA followed by small business and land leasing for agriculture; d) sustained supply of water in the streams is the main motivation for the indigenous communities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts to conserve the village common forests; and e) gravitational flow system (GFS) of water harvesting from forests provide easy access to safe water for drinking and other domestic use (including homestead agriculture) and establishment of such facility triggers active participation of the hill communities in development projects. These lessons provide important clues for selection of interventions in the ongoing and future projects of the AF. We hope that the reader will appreciate the endeavor of the AF and join with AF in conservation of forests and biodiversity of the country. Farid Uddin Ahmed Executive Director TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 07 Chapter 1 Introduction 09 Chapter 2 Grant Making in 2010 13 Chapter 3 Project Briefs 19 Chapter 4 Spotlight: Alternative Livelihood Development 33 Chapter 5 Challenges and Thrusts for 2011 45 Chapter 6 Finance 47 Abbreviations and Acronyms 52 Arannayk Foundation Annual Report 2010 05 6 6 Arannayk Foundation Annual Report 2010 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Arannayk Foundation (AF), also called the ‘Bangladesh Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation’, was established in July 2003 jointly by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and the United States Government (USG) under the provisions of the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) of 1998 in order to conserve rapidly disappearing forests and biodiversity of Bangladesh. The AF is registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital. It is managed by an independent Board of Directors composed of one representative each from the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and United States Government (USG), and five representatives from non- governmental organizations. The Arannayk Foundation started its grant making activities from 2006. In 2010, the AF funded 27 projects, 21 continuing from previous years and 6 new. The new projects include one project on biodiversity monitoring (both flora and fauna) in six protected areas (PA), one project on communication interventions for raising mass awareness on forest and biodiversity conservation using print and electronic media, one project on human resource development for biodiversity conservation activities through training and study tour of project implementing staff of various organizations, and three alternative livelihood development grants to the Co-management Councils of three protected areas. The pre-existing projects that continued in 2010 include (a) three homestead agroforestry biodiversity conservation