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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Forest and Forestry

What is Forest?


    There are so many definitions of Forest. some of them are like the following.



         Forest is a natural assembly of plants and animals of which the dominent organisms are tree. 
         Forest is an area set aside for the production of timber and other forest produce, maintained under woody vegetation for certain indirect benefts which it provides, e.g. climatic or protective or both.
         A forest is a community of trees, shrubs, herbs, and associated plants and organisms that cover a considerable area that use oxygen, water and soil nutrients as the community attains maturity and reproduces itself.
         The ecological definition of Forest is " A forest is an ecosystem or assemblage of ecosystems dominated by trees and other woody vegetation." The living part of a forest includes trees, shrubs, vines, grasses and other herbaceous plants, mosses, algae, fungi, insects, mamals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and microorganisms living on the plants animals and in the soil. These interact with one another and with the non-living part of the environment - including the soil, water body, minarels etc. to make up what we know as a forest.
Forest

What is Forestry?

     
Forestry is the art and science of managing forests, tree plantations, and related natural resources. The main goal of forestry is to create an implement systems that allow forests to continue a sustainable continuation of environmental supplies and services. The challenge of forestry is to create systems that are socially accepted while sustaining the resource and any other resources that might be affected.


Theory and practice of all that includes the creation, conservation and scientific management of forest and utilization of their resources. 

Objectives of Foresry Department        

          The objectives of Forestry is to effectively conserve, rehabilitate, expand develop and manage the forest resources to meet the vital needs of forest goods and services. To protect the land resources against degradation by deforestation, soil erosion, shifting cultivation fire, grazing, flood etc. To protect the flora and fauna for conserving ecosystem and to preserve biodiversity. To promote efficient and waste free harvesting, processing and utilization of forest products to obtain increased net benefit. To provide increased socio-economic benefits to the people of the country by contributing to —the basic needs of the families, —poverty alleviation, employment generation, —Income generation and better living condition, supporting agricultural and rural development. And to facilitate human resource development for forestry including education, training, and improvement of skills and capabilities.


Who is a Forester?  

       Foresters work for the timber industry, government agencies, conservation groups, local authorities, urban parks boards, citizens' associations, and private landowners. žIndustrial foresters plan forest regeneration starting with careful harvesting. Urban foresters manage trees in urban green spaces. Foresters work in tree nurseries growing seedlings for woodland creation or regeneration projects.  Foresters improve tree genetics. žForest engineers develop new building systems. žProfessional foresters measure and model the growth of forests with tools like geographic information systems. žForesters may combat insect infestation, disease, forest and grassland wildfire Foresters participate in wildlife conservation planning and watershed protection. žForesters have been mainly concerned with timber management, especially reforestation, maintaining forests at prime conditions, and fire control.

Forests In Bangladesh

There are three types of forests in Bangladesh, i.e. mangrove, mixed evergreen, and deciduous forests.  One-tenth (9.8 percent, or 1.45 million ha) of the country’s surface area is under the forest belts, but the actual coverage of natural forests is lower than this, with most of this accounted for by the Sundarbans mangrove forest.  Bangladesh has one of the world’s lowest forest-to-population ratios (<0.02 ha per person).  The natural forests are the most important wildlife habitats since most of the flagship and threatened species are found there.

The mangrove forests (including coastal plantations) cover an area of 0.71 million ha along the coast, with most of this (0.58 million ha) accounted for by the Sundarbans – the largest and least disturbed forest of Bangladesh.  The Bangladesh and Indian Sundarbans together form the largest single mangrove forest in the world accounting for 6 percent of all mangroves on earth.  The mangrove forests are characterized by unique plants that grow below the high tide level and can survive through the use of various types of aerial roots.  The vegetation is mainly composed of mangrove trees such as Sundri (Heritierafomes, Sundari), Excoecariaagallocha (Gewa), Sonneratiaapetal (Keora), Sonneratiacaseolaris (Chila/Ora) and Avicenniaspp (Baen), and smaller plants such as ceriops spp. (Goran), Phoenixpaludosa (Hental), Nipa Palm (Nypa fruticans, Golpata), Acanthus ilicifolius (Hargoza), Sungrass (Imperata spp., Chhan) and Typha spp. (Hogla).

The mixed evergreen forests have become heavily fragmented but together cover an area of 0.55 million ha in the southeast and northeast of Bangladesh.  Some relatively large patches of mixed evergreen forests still exist in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the southeast.  The two best mixed evergreen forests in the northeast are found within Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary and LawacharaNational Park.  The mixed evergreen forests are dominated by evergreen trees, but also have some deciduous trees.  The principal tree species include Artocarpuschaplasha (Chapalish), Dipterocarpuspp. (Garzan), Swintoniafloribunda (Civit), Bombax spp.(Shimul), Micheliachampacea (Champa) Syzygium spp. (Jaam), Wild Mange (Mangifrealongipes, Ury-aam), Albiziaspp (Koroi), Dilleniapentagyna (Hargaza/Azuli), Lagerstroemia spp. (Jarul) and Ficus spp. (Bot).  Other common plants include differenct species of bamboo (Bambusa spp., Melocann spp., etc.), epiphytes (Vanda spp., Dendrobium spp., etc. ), climbers and ferns, including the Tree-fern (Alsophila sp.).

The deciduous forest have also become largely fragmented and degraded throughout the country.  The 0.12 million ha of deciduous forests are distributed in the central, northern and northwestern parts of the country.  Only in the Madhupur Tract are relatively large areas of forests still existing, although they are not in a primary state.  The most dominant tree species of the forest is Sal (Shorearobusta ,Shal), which forms 80 percent of the trees, but mature Sal trees in the forest are now extremely rare.  Other pecies that form the vegetation include trees such as Dillieniapentagyna (Hargaza/Azuli), Adina cordifolia (Kaikka),, Ficus spp. (Bot) and Syzygium spp. (Jaam), and plants including Zizyphus spp. (Bon-boroi), Spondiasmangifrea (Bon-amra), Phyllanthusembelica (Amloki), Gloriosasuperba (Ulotchondal), Curcuma spp (Shoti), Bamboo (Bambusa spp.) and Lantana camrara.  The deciduous forests have many large grassland pockets, dominated by imperata grasses.