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Report on

Training of Stakeholders on adaptation to change

including climate change

Event-4: 18-21 March 2014

Khagrachari, Chittagong Hill Tracts

Prepared by:

Farid Uddin Ahmed, Executive Director

Abdul Mannan, Program Officer (M & E)

Farhana Khan Pushpa, Asst. Program Officer (Training & Communication)

Jessie Daru, Asst. Finance Officer

Arannayk Foundation, March 2014

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Introduction Under the collaborative program of AF-ICIMOD, the training was organized for NGOs of Khagrachari on Adaptation to change including climate change during 18-21 March 2014 at Anando Auditorium in Khagrachari town. There were 25 participants from 18 NGOs.

Inaugural Session The training started with an inaugural ceremony. Mr. Raktautpal Tripura, Member, CHT Regional Council was the Chief Guest and Mr. Sudibya Kanti Khisa, Consultant, ADB was the Special Guest.

Photo-1: Chief Guest Mr. Raktautpal Tripura making his inaugural speech

The Chief Guest in his inaugural speech highlighted the major changes that have occurred since 1971. He mentioned about two major changes such as changes in landscape and serious decrease in water flow in different streams. He also mentioned about the impact of such changes in livelihood of indigenous people. He said that there were dense forests with trees of more than 100 year old where tigers, deer, bear, wild boar, peacock and several other wild animals were found but due to deforestation, those species have either migrated to neighboring countries or disappeared. He said that due to deforestation people of CHT is not getting water round the year causing serious problems for the dwellers. Special guest Mr. Khisa appreciated the initiative of AF-ICIMOD collaboration for training of stakeholders on adaptation to change including climate change. He said that since British regime, changes in CHT are occurring. He mentioned about replacement of so-called non-productive natural forests with teak which is one of the main causes of soil degradation and deforestation in CHT followed by displacement of indigenous communities due to hydro-electric power generation through Kaptai dam.

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Photo-2: Special guest Mr. Khisa giving his speech

In addition, due to unrest in CHT, majority of the natural forests are lost but unfortunately, the issue of natural resources management was not adequately addressed by any development partners or even government as yet. He emphasized the need for immediate action for conservation and restoration of natural forests for livelihood of the indigenous communities of CHT.

Photo-3: Chairperson delivering his speech

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Photo-4: A group of participants in the inauguration

The Chair thanked the Chief Guest and Special guest for their appropriate remarks and understanding on the bio-physical and social changes in CHT. He shared the expected outcome of the training and requested the participants to act as change agent in reverting the changes for improving livelihood of the people of CHT. The inaugural session ended with introduction of training participants and the resource persons.

Technical Sessions The technical sessions were as follows:

1. Overview of changes in CHT followed by group exercise to identify visible changes in CHT over last 3-4 decades. The session was led by Mr. Sudibya Kanti Khisa

2. Drivers of changes and overview on climate change followed by group exercise to identify the climatic and non-climatic drivers of changes led by Mr. Abdul Mannan

3. Impact of changes on ecosystem and biodiversity by Farid Uddin Ahmed 4. Impact of changes on livelihood followed by group exercise. The session was led by Dr.

Mohiuddin 5. Impact of climate change and other changes on gender by Farhana Khan Pushpa followed by

group exercise to identify the impact on women in Khagrachari 6. Development of adaptation plan by Mr. Sudibya Kanti Khisa

The above six sessions and group exercises were held on day 1 and day 2. The Day 3 was allocated for field visit to see the adaptation measure supported by Arannayk Foundation in Dighinala. At the end of the day, the participants made a group exercise to identify the best practices and areas that may be improved further to harness maximum benefit. The Day 4 was used for reconciling the knowledge and developing an adaptation plan for Khagrachari. During the exercise, the participants were divided into three groups to work on developing adaptation plan if they were one of the following:

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a) NGO developing a proposal to address the issues of changes b) Headmen developing a proposal to address the issues of changes c) Jhumian developing a proposal to address the issues of changes

Outcome of the training The participants were divided into three groups and they had several group exercises. They have blended their traditional knowledge with lessons learned from the training and came up with identifying different changes and possible measures. Finally they came up with the adaptation plan. The outcome of the group exercises were as follows:

Group exercise-1: Identification of Major Changes in Khagrachari The major changes that the three randomly formed groups identified (a) changes in land use, (b) changes in livelihood pattern, (c) changes in social context, (d) weather pattern and (e) changes in forest and biodiversity. a) Changes in land use pattern: They have noted that there is significant change in land use over last three decades. These included introduction of tobacco cultivation replacing cereals and vegetables, establishment of fruit orchard in hills, monoculture (Rubber, Teak), changes in cultivation system, infrastructure development, increased utilization of ground water, expansion of brickfield, modernization of agriculture and increase in soil erosion.

Photo-5: Rapporteur of the group writing the discussion in paper for presentation

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b) Changes in livelihood pattern Livelihood of indigenous communities living in remote areas is dependent on shifting cultivation (jhum). Due to increase in population, availability of land for jhum cultivation is reduced. Consequently, the fallow period in cultivation is reduced to 4-5 years, whereas it was 18-20 years three decades before. Moreover, there is change in cropping pattern as well. They are growing commercial crops like ginger, turmeric, taro, pineapple, and other crops. So, people living in remote areas are suffering because of low productivity and less area for cultivation. They are also using chemical fertilizer and insecticide for increased production but in most cases it is not effective. As the labor cost has gone high, they are using weedicide. Many of the people changed their profession such as bus/truck/CNG driving and working in various GO & NGOs in Khagrachari. Thus there are both positive and negative impacts of changes. c) Social Change: There is general improvement in educational system. Most of the children, especially girls are enrolled in school and the dropout rate is reduced to minimum. Because of the reduced fallow period, indigenous people are moving from one place to another in search of jhum land. On the contrary, many climate refugees have settled in CHT causing serious pressure on land. While there is inward migration, because of general lack of employment opportunities there is outward migration as well. However, many indigenous people got opportunities to work in GO and NGOs in CHT. Access to health services is increased. There is increase in social network and other professional network to share opportunities and limitations of different segments.

Photo-6: Participants discussing during group work

d) Weather pattern: Participants noted that there is definite change in weather pattern such as erratic rainfall, increased temperature, drought, change in season pattern and frequent flood.

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Photo-7: Group representatives presenting major findings

e) Bio-physical aspect: The major changes occurred in forests and biodiversity. Most of the dense tree cover and natural forests including big trees are lost from the forests. Due to deforestation, wildlife habitat is lost with consequent migration or extinction of wild animals. The water flow from the forests is decreased and hence people don’t get water throughout the year. Many medicinal plants are lost. Traditional healers are not getting right or adequate amount of plants for treatment.

Group exercise-2: Impact of climate change and other changes on gender: Through group exercise, knowledge of participants was harnessed on the impact of climate change on gender. All three groups came up with similar kind of information.

Photo-8: One of the group members presenting findings of the group work

The main impact as noted by the participants is the distance and time taken by the women for collecting

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water, occurrence of water borne diseases, serious scarcity of water during dry season, reduced crop yield in both jhum and crop land, diseases in crops, etc. Sometimes, it created social problem as the women could not give enough time to their families.

Photo-9: One of the group members presenting findings on ‘Impact of climate change and other

changes on gender’

They have however, noted positive impact like reduced infestation of malaria with changing climate. They observe lesser number of mosquitoes now a day. They also felt that there is serious intervention from the government as well for controlling malaria in CHT.

Field visit and Group exercise-3: Field visit to Restoration of hilly biodiversity Project of AF-ANANDO at Diginala, Khagrachari On the third day, the participants were taken to the Dighinala, 21 kilometer from Khagracahri town, where Arannayk Foundation and Anando (a national NGO) has been working for last five years to support 135 indigenous families who were repatriated from India after peace treaty of CHT. The area is encompassed by 135 hills over an area of about 200 ha. The hills were barren. People dwelling in the area had been practicing shifting cultivation but due to extremely low productivity of the hills, they had been migrating during lean period to different places to earn their livelihood through selling labor. Anando with backstopping support from the Arannayk Foundation restored the forest cover with different agroforestry technologies such as plantation along the boundary (live fence), agroforestry with multi-tier fruit orchard in plain land (such as pineapple, lemon, orange, malta, litchi and mango in different tiers), bamboo plantation and planting broom grass along the water courses and planting indigenous tree species like Champa, Garjan and Chapalish in other parts of the hills. Over a period of five years, the area has become completely green and the water flow in the stream has increased significantly. The participants saw a video documentary of the project site and through field visit they

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could understand the situation better. They have seen all the technologies in the field. The participants interviewed the project participants and they were impressed with the changes made in the area within such a shortest period. It was also noted that only within five years, they have successfully established a revolving loan fund having Tk 250,000 from the Arannayk Foundation but the participants saved more than Tk 200,000 raising the fund to Tk 500,000 with only 3% interest from the participants for loan for different income generating activities. The participants adopted alternative income generating activities like vegetable cultivation, crop cultivation taking lease, small trade, poultry rearing, cattle fattening, milking cow rearing, pig rearing, etc.

Photo-10: Participants at the demonstration plot of ‘Boundary line cultivation’

In the boundary line live hedge they have used lemon, neem, mahogany and areca nut tree. Each lemon tree provided them lemon worth Tk 1000. The participants could learn about maximum utilization of land from growing diversified crops.

Photo-11: Participants in plantation areas.

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While visiting the Champa, Bamboo and Wood-apple plantation supported by AF-ANANDO, the participants also saw water flow from the forests due to effective management.

Photo-12: ANANDO representative explaining their activities

The participants also visited homestead garden and learned that locals have adopted technologies and produced vegetables throughout the year that generated income and ensured nutritional security of the household members.

Photo-13: Community leader sharing their activities with participants

At the end of the field visit community members especially the executive members shared the process of changes in the area with support from Arannayk Foundation and the Anando. They also shared some of the issues to be addressed in near future for sustainability of the intervention which included some

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support for quality planting materials for horticulture, harnessing the benefit of water through aquaculture, support for small business, plantation of few more denuded hills, and support for transportation of different goods to the markets. He also shared his experience of having benefit from tree - he got 83 cubic feet wood from one single champa tree.

Photo-14: Mr. Farid Uddin Ahmed sharing the activities of Arannayk and Proshika with the

participants in Dighinala

The participants returned to the Khagrachari at 3.00 pm. After lunch, they were asked to identify two issues from the field visit:

a) What they liked most in the field b) Identify areas where improvement could be made

What they liked most in the field The participants appreciated the boundary line concept very much, followed by multi-tier orchard and bamboo plantation along the water courses. They were excited with the coherence of the group and their vision including their saving for establishment of revolving loan fund. The found that revolving loan fund management policy was excellent and the communities have been strictly following the rules and hence there were no outstanding of loan. The organizational capacity of the communities was found excellent. The total project area has become a production centre and their income has increased significantly over a period of five years. Areas where improvement could be made They noticed that there were not enough women in the community who were active in project activities though they understand that homestead based activities including poultry and pig rearing must have been done by the women.

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They proposed that if they could identify some crops suitable for jhum either from the locality or from agricultural research institute that could help sustaining jhum cultivation. Moreover, traditional handloom activity was not observed which needs some design improvement for better marketing and cash. They also suggested that some rain water harvesting devices could be installed for homestead dwellers to ensure safe drinking water. The participants saw another video during training where village common forest (VCF) was restored by the communities with support from Arannayk Foundation. As the area was also near to Khagrachari they wanted to see that project site also but due to time constraint, the AF could not take the participants there.

Group exercise 4: Adaptation Planning From different group exercises, it was found that the critical issues due to climate change and other changes include the following:

1. Deforestation rate is unacceptably high 2. Water availability is significantly reduced 3. Livelihood of people are affected

The participants were requested to develop an adaptation plan considering themselves as one of the following:

1. Headman 2. NGO Worker 3. Jhumiya

Thus one group developed plan as if they were Headmen, another group developed plan as a local NGO and the third group developed plan as a Jhumian. They were requested to consider activities to address the issue of deforestation, water and livelihood. Also they were requested to propose cost estimate for the total activities. The summary of their presentations were as follows: Group: Headman The group proposed to restore a degraded community reserve (village common forest). The key points they identified were conversion of significant amount of land from community reserve to jhum cultivation, reduced flow of water from the community reserve (only six months) for which their livelihood is seriously affected, reduced supply of non-timber forest products from the forest, lack of drinking water, suffering of women and children for collecting fuel-wood and water from distant places, etc. They proposed to delineate the area with pillar so that no further conversion of land takes place. They proposed to identify areas with poor tree cover or degraded site which they want to restore through planting at least 10,000 seedlings of local species including bamboo and some fruit trees. They also

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wanted to organize the communities with organizational support as they have seen in Dighinala where Anando has been working. They also wanted to establish a revolving loan fund for the communities. They desired to have well established linkages with Department of Agriculture, Department of Livestock Services and Forest Department.

Photo-15: Representative from ‘Headman’ group explaining their presentation

Through implementing those activities they wanted to be involved in national REDD+ program. They expect that within five years, they would be able to make the community reserve green, increase supply of water from the forests and also improved livelihood of the people living around the reserve. They made detail estimation about cost. The total cost for all the intervention was around Tk 1.0 million which included one staff support for two years (Tk 120,000, cost of plantation with 10,000 seedlings (Tk 300,000), training for alternative income generating activities (Tk 200,000), input support for AIGA (Tk 200,000) and the rest (Tk 3,80,000) for establishing revolving loan fund). Group: NGO This group designed a 3 years project named ‘Community based biodiversity conservation project in Khagrachari (khagrachari, dighinala, mahalchari)’. The main objectives of this program were: Conserving biodiversity and restore local and endangered species through creating green cover which will increase water flow in three major rivers namely Chengi,

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Maini, Feni river. Their main activities included baseline survey, awareness program (school, college, karbari, headman, local elite), plantation in denuded hills, enrichment plantation in degraded sites, mini-nursery establishment by the beneficiaries, need assessment of the beneficiaries, creation or revolving fund, providing technical capacity building support for alternative income generating activities (AIGAs), development of community facilities (such as providing pure water to the community), exposure visit, developing materials like poster, billboard, developing an effective management plan, and farmer to farmer extension.

Photo-16: ‘NGO’ group’s participant presenting their plan

The expected outcomes as envisaged included round the year supply of water from the hills, increased availability of non-timber forest products, more wild animals, reduced dependence of communities on forest, increased income of household from AIGA, cohesion amount the communities and empowering the communities for taking any decision about development, etc. As far as cost estimate, it was found that the total cost of the project was higher (BDT 200 million) which included salary of staff (Tk 6 million), office management and including equipment such as motorbikes (Tk 4 million), community capacity building (Tk 4 million), and the remaining 6 million for study visit, awareness program and creation of revolving fund. Mr. Ahmed appreciated the idea of the group. He explained that though the cost of the project is more but it will generate scientific information and sustainable conservation method because of effective organizational and technical capacity development and development of a sizeable revolving fund.

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Photo-17: Mr. Ahmed adding on to the group’s presentation

Group: Jhumiya The activities suggested by this group as Jhumian included maximizing production from limited land through jhum cultivation, keeping rest of the land for establishing a community reserve in order to ensure sustainable supply of water, intensification of homestead vegetable cultivation, Bamboo cultivation along the stream side, livestock rearing and short rotational fruit orchard establishment. Their expected results were allowing natural forest regeneration, increasing production of natural food, decrease in female work load and working hour, less dependence on jhum, increase in the education level amongst the new generation.

Photo-18: ‘Jhumiya’ group presenting their plan

The group faced criticism for reducing jhum cultivation or phasing out jhum cultivation from other groups as they thought that phasing out jhum means phasing out culture. Rather they suggested that

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measures must be taken to increase production from jhum so that they can allow more fallow period. It may be done through replacing existing varieties of crop with new varieties or improving management practices. The participants reiterated the relation of Jhum with culture of indigenous communities. As far as cost is concerned, the Jhumian group came with smallest budget of only Tk 500,000 for two years to cover the cost of plantation with fruit trees and creation of a revolving fund worth Tk 300,000 for the communities of 50 members.

Photo-19: Active discussion after the group presentations

The lesson from the three exercises is that there are scopes for working with all three groups independently as pilot. If project directly support Headmen and Karbari for effective conservation of their catchment areas, it would cost Tk 1 million.

Feedback of participants on the training: The participants provided their feedback in group. Three groups were requested to provide feedback on the training.

All three groups rated the overall management as good.

They suggested including more discussion on REDD+ which they found most interesting. They conceived that there is scope for CHT in REDD+. (Interest was created because of video presentation on REDD+ on the last day before closing the training)

Organizing similar training for headman, karbari, jhumias, religious leaders and women folk of CHT for better adaptation

Need more examples of gender from CHT context

More field visits showing good and bad practices

Organize some annual event for revisiting the actions

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Organize annual biodiversity fair for proper documentation of the animal and plant diversity of forest, identification of different AIGAs, establishment of nurseries, dissemination of technical knowledge among the beneficiaries, holding seminars and workshops to aware people about carbon trading

Closing session: Mr. Farid Uddin Ahmed thanked all the participants for managing time and participating in this training. In response to the support for individual land owners for forest conservation, he recommended them to be involved in ‘Social Business’. Mr. Ahmed described how social business operates and how to apply for fund for social business from Yunus Centre. He said that after sharing the concept and process of applying for social business in last meeting, Ashika applied for the fund for mushroom cultivation. The project was discussed during last meeting of social business and his application is under active consideration for funding from Yunus Centre. He provided address for sending application and requested the participants for sharing their project so that Arannayk can help in refining the proposal. At the end of the four day long training representatives of the participants thanked AF-ICIMOD for organizing such enlightening and constructive training on one of the major issues that they have to deal with every day. The resource persons and the facilitators also thanked the participants for being attentive and supportive throughout the training.

Photo-20: Certificate distribution ceremony

In the concluding part of the closing session the participants were handed over a certificate of participation. Representatives of the resource persons thanked all the participants and their respective organizations for participating in the training.

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List of Participants

NAMITA CHAKMA EC Member, ALAAM

TINA CHAKMA Field Assistant, BIRAM

RATAN KUMAR DEY Project Manager, ANANDO

ATU MARMA Long Term Observer, Zabarang Kalyan Samity

LOKA JOTI CHAKMA Long Term Observer, Zabarang Kalyan Samity

APO CHAKMA Monitoring and Reporting Officer, Shatadal Kalyan Samity

SUHAS CHAKMA Executive Director, Shatadal Kalyan Samity

KHADIJA AKHTER NUPUR Program Officer, ANANDO

MANATOS CHAKMA Field Officer, BIRAM

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ELI CHAKMA Monitoring and Reporting Officer, ALO

DR. JIBAMOY MURANG District Coordinator, HAMARI

KAJAL BARAN TRIPURA Program Officer, Khagrapur Mahila Kalyan Samity

SAMIRAN CHAKMA Organizing Secretary, Tumbas Unnyan Sangstha

RUPNA DEVI TRIPURA Finance and Admin Assistant, KMKS

BENJIN CHAKMA Program Officer, JUMOFUL

SUKIRON CHAKMA Project Coordinator, Trinamul Unnayan Sangstha

RIPUL CHAKMA Campaign Coordinator, Assistance for the Livelihood of the Origins

SUKUMAR ROY Executive Director, Hill Development Organization

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JNANA PRIYO CHAKMA ED, JUMOFUL

MINUCHING MARMA Project officer, Trinamul Unnayan Sangstha

LALASA CHAKMA Executive Director, Kabidang

MAUNG HLA CHING Assistant Project Coordinator, PROSHIKA CRBVCFR

MONTOSH KUMAR DAS Project Coordinator, PROSHIKA

CHAITHOWAI MARMA Executive Director, BRAPA

MONG SA NU MARMA ED, FOWARA