climate change & cht, bangladesh
TRANSCRIPT
8/3/2019 Climate Change & CHT, Bangladesh
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CLIMATE CHANGE IN CHT &VULNERABILITY FACING BY THE
ENVIRONMENT (HILL PEOPLE,
NATURE & WILDLIFE) WITH ANOBSERVATION ON ADAPTATION
& MITIGATION PROCESSPranay Chakma
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CHARACTERISTICS
The CHT covers an area of
13,190 square kilometers. Constitutes about 10 per cent
of the total land area of
Bangladesh.
More than 90 per cent of thearea is covered by hills with
only 129,000 hectares (ha) of
cropped land.
About 87 per cent of the landis covered with forest totaling
11,475 sq. kms mostly
owned by the government.
(Source: Dasgupta and Ahmed, 1998)
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HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY OF
HUMAN INTERVENTION ON
THE CHT
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TRADITIONAL JUM/ SHIFTING
CULTIVATIONTraditional method- emerged around 300-400
years ago (F. Buckanan: EIC & Lewin 1869:28).
Cultivation on the steep slopes of the high
hills.
In North-Eastern Indian Himalayas, Jum is a
predominant land use system supporting 1.6
m hill people over an area of 426 m hactor (Partap:1998)..
From Jum fields CHT loss mother soil would
be 4.2 m tons per annum (ADB:1978).
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Impacts of Jum
A study by Soil Conservation and Water ManagementCentre found soil loss during rainy season as follows:
gentle slope-41.3 MT/h, moderate slope-35.4 MT/h and
steep slope-42.1 MT/h (Rahman, 2001).
The consequent erosion of land and deforestation
could gradually cause severe water crisis in the CHT
region.
Cause a loss of biodiversity and bring on ecological
disaster in the whole area.
The psychological and physical relationships between
the quality of human life and the quality of the natural
environment could also deteriorate.
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TEAK MONOCULTURE(1872)
Introduced by the Britishcolonial rulers in the 1872,teak (Tectona grandis)monoculture causes massive
soil erosion, among other illeffects. However desirablecommercially, this exoticspecies causes enormousharm to local environment.
Absence of understoryvegetation is another common feature of the teakplantation. Teak plantation isindeed a "death-knell towildlife conservation".
April 2000: Rangamati Hill District
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ACCORDING TO A RESEARCH FINDINGS
OF VAN SCHENDEL ET. AL
³ A monoculture of Teak, however
desirable commercially, is a death-knell to
wildlife conservation. No species of deer
or monkey can find food in such
vegetation, and they are forced to
abandon the area. In the absence of deer,
Tigers and Leopards turn to preying oncattle and goats around the villages and
are therefore shot´.
Source: Van Schendel et. Al 2000: 147
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The Karnaphuli Paper Mill (1953)
Polluting the waters of Karnaphuli since its
establishment.
Emitating Toxic Dioxins regularly resulting
dead of fishes and changing the sex organs
and other features of fishes.
Releasing foul odor into the air.
Millions of tons of bamboo and softwood
have been extracted from the hills to keep
the mill running .
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The Kaptai Hydroelectric Project
(1963) This dam flooded at least 54,000 acres of settled
cultivable land or about 40% of total cultivable
land.
Displaced over 100,000 (about 25 per cent of
the region¶s population).
Compensation for lost land was inadequate andover 40,000 hill people crossed the border into
India.
( Source: Khan, 1994; Amnesty International, 2000)
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The Kaptai Dam¶s Consequences
Huge quantities of trees went under water.
Many of the hill people resumed to shifting
cultivation.
Most of the wildlife once comprised of bison,sambur, barking deer, leopard, R. B. Tiger,
panther etc. are not seen anymore.
Elephant population has drastically decreased. In less than 40 years after the construction of
this the tiger species have gone totally extinct.
( Source: Gain, Philip. Bd Env. Facing the 21st Century, SEHD: 2002)
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People that Departed from own
Land Due to Kaptai Dam
Courtesy:PCJSS,1964
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Rubber Plantation²A Failure! (1969) Rubber is not native to
CHT, thus causedecological problems.
40,000 acres of land weregrabbed for this purpose.
The yield from rubber
plantations is reported tobe very unsatisfactory.
According to expertobservation, natural rubber does not have mucheconomic and
environmental basis in Bd. When govt. went into
rubber production in theCHT the production wasmuch lower than what was
projected (TK. 81 crore).( Source: Gain, Philip. Bd Env. Facing the 21st Century, SEHD: 2002)
February 1998: Khagrachhari Hill District .
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Militarization
More than 76,000 acres of hilly and plain
land are literally shaved and occupied by the
military (Information & Publicity Dept. of PCJSS:2009) .
Unknown numbers of Indigenous people are
displaced for establishing thousands of
temporary army camps.
Everywhere in CHT including RF, military
can access without the permission of local
authority and Forestry Dept.
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Exploration of Natural Resources
(1997)
Natural gas with a reserve of 0.16 trillion cubic feet
has been discovered at Sumutang in Khagrachari
Hill district. Good quality natural gas at Ruma inBandarban, petroleum at Alikadam, and reserves of
coal at Lama have also been found (Haque, 2001).
Project is merged by United Meridian Company of
USA and UNOCAL. In Kassalong 1 Drilling Project hills have been
leveled and drilling has already begun.
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Tourism
Excitement in making a tourist attraction
since Pakistan period.
Tourism brings cash but it can pose anumber of threats to the social and natural
environment.
It needs very special consideration.
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Depot of Teak Lumber
The CHT meetsmost of the country'sdemand for teak, themost desired wood
for furniture anddecoration of houses. However valuable
commercially, teak isexotic to Bangladeshand a major reasonfor soil degradation.
April 2003: Sugar Mill, Rangamati Hill
District
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Now the Target is Fuelwood
Fuelwood brought toRangamati from theremote areas of theChittagong Hill Tracts.
Hundreds of boats bringsuch fuelwood from thehill bushes, which is thenquickly transported to
the brick kilns inChittagong or tocustomers in the plains.
February 2003: Rangamati Hill District
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Aagar Plantation Replaces Natural
Forest
These hillocks inBandarban Hill District,once covered with
natural forest, are nowclean shaven for plantation of Aagar.
Agar is one of manykinds of commercial
plantations replacing thenatural forest.
April 2000: Bandarban Hill District.
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New Innovation of Soil Death?
Tobacco Production-2000
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Taste of Humanbeing
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Impacts of Climate Change Imbalanced environment
Temp increases Unfavourable rainfall patterns
Increased disease
Increasing pop pressure
Mono-culture human behaviour (nonsustainableuse)
Loss of bio-diversity
Increased diseases
Less production
Dried water sources Soil erosion
Food (in)security
Loss of livelihood
Loss of traditional culture
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Recommendations Conduct more research on CC and identify gaps
Familiarization and sensitization
Organize public forums for lobby and advocacy (decisionmakers)
Lobby/advocacy with line department/GOV to make
climate change mitigation policy sensitive to indigenouspeoples
Awareness raising and capacity building training for IP
Full and effective participation in all Government/NGOsinitiatives
Free, Prior informed Consent of IP
International involvement to build capacity of Bangladesh
Proper mitigation and adaptation strategy including the IP
Current climate change strategy of Bangladesh does notmention anything about Impact of Climate Change on IP
and mitigation strategy - it should be revised.
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Conclusion
The settlement of environmental and natural resourcedisputes should be addressed by the recognition of
individual human rights and the protection of the
environment (Gormley, 1976).
The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and the1995 World Summit for Social Development highlighted
the importance of an integrated approach to social
advancement (UNDP, 1998) that Human rights, peace,
sustainable development and the protection of the
environment are interdependent and indivisible.
Moreover, the protection of land and resource rights of
the indigenous community is closely related to the
achievement of sustainable development.