Can homegardens help save forests in Bangladesh? Domestic biomass fuel consumption patterns and implications for forest conservation in south-central Bangladesh

We conducted an exploratory survey in south-central Bangladesh to realize the contribution of homegardens to household domestic biomass fuel consumption. Households were placed into categories based on their land holdings. A total of thirty households were interviewed to understand their domestic fuel consumption pattern as well as the role played by homegardens in meeting their biomass fuel requirements. This study suggested that the majority of the households in the area rely extensively on homegardens to meet their domestic fuel requirements. 58% of the households biomass fuel were drawn from homegardens, followed by neighbours (16%), markets (12%) and from public/fallow land (14%). 47 species were identified from the homegardens that were used by the respondents as fuel. Fuelwood was a major type of biomass fuel used by the households, contributing to about 56% of households total biomass fuel consumption, followed by dried leaves (21%), dung cake/sticks (14%), and crop residues (6%). As homegardens were found to provide a valuable alternative source of biomass fuel, it was concluded that a rich homegarden system near forest regions should be supported in order to reduce pressure on the country’s remaining forests. Governments can facilitate this by granting marginal households access to trees in fallow lands, as well as public places including roads, railways and river banks

Combined effects of climate change and sea-level rise project dramatic habitat loss of the globally endangered Bengal tiger in the Bangladesh Sundarbans

The Sundarbans, in southern coastal Bangladesh, is the world's largest surviving mangrove habitat and the last stronghold of tiger adapted to living in a mangrove ecosystem. Using MaxEnt (maximum entropy modeling), current distribution data, land-use/land cover and bioclimatic variables, we modeled the likely future distribution of the globally endangered Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. We used two climatic scenarios (i.e., RCP6.0 and RCP8.5) developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide projections of suitable habitats of Bengal tigers in 2050 and 2070. We also combined projected sea-level rise for the area in our models of future species distributions. Our results suggest that there will be a dramatic decline in suitable Bengal tiger habitats in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Other than various aspects of local climate, sea-level rise is projected to have a substantial negative impact on Bengal tiger habitats in this low-lying area. Our model predicts that due to the combined effect of climate change and sea-level rise, there will be no suitable Bengal tiger habitat remaining in the Sundarbans by 2070. Enhancing terrestrial protected area coverage, regular monitoring, law enforcement, awareness-building among local residents among the key strategies needed to ensure long-term survival and conservation of the Bengal tiger in the Bangladesh Sundarbans