Assessing Local People’s Preferences for Landscape Character in Teknaf Peninsula for Sustainable Landscape Conservation and Development

Sustainable development requires better understanding of the human-landscape relationship in forested landscapes, one that facilitates more locally relevant and sustainable management. It can be more easily understood by the process of landscape characterisation and humans’ valuation. Therefore, this study assesses local people’s preferences and perceptions about the physical landscape, which is crucial for managing landscape and livelihood. The study investigates the diversification of landscape character types and landscape character areas (LCA), local people’s perceptions about and preferences for different LCAs, and how and why they prefer some LCAs to others. An LCA is a distinct type of landscape that is relatively homogenous in character. Two different villages located in Teknaf peninsula, Bangladesh, are examined where the villages were selected by calculating vegetation cover within a buffer of 1 kilometre. Landform and vegetation data were collected as physical characteristics of the landscape to identify the LCA, and data for local people’s perception and preferences were collected through focus group discussions and questionnaire surveys by selecting 10% of the households of each village in March 2016. The findings show that in Kerantali the diversification of landscape character types was more than in Tulatali. Homestead garden areas are highly preferred in Tulatali and forest is highly preferred in Kerantali. Kerantali\u27s people receive poor material benefit from forest areas, whereas Tulatoli\u27s people receive more material benefit from homestead garden areas. Furthermore, our findings indicate that homestead gardens play an important role as a supplement to forests

Causes and consequences of forest cover transformation on human-wildlife interaction in the Teknaf Wildlife Sanctuary, Bangladesh

Protected Areas (PAs) in Bangladesh have been pivotal for conserving wildlife. The country plans to increase the number of PAs by implementing new forest-governing policies with the involvement of local communities. Their efficacy in wildlife conservation and forest preservation is being questioned due to significant land cover changes within PA boundaries. It is essential to understand the current role of existing PAs in forest cover transformation and their impact on wildlife conservation before expanding the PAs and implementing new policies. This study aims to explore the land cover transformation within Teknaf Wildlife Sanctuary (TWS) and describe the role of the local community and its impact on wildlife. Utilizing Landsat satellite images from 1989 to 2015, this study discovered a 46 % deforestation rate within TWS, surpassing its surrounding areas. Since 1989, 75 % of primary forests have been eradicated, leaving a mere 650 hectares intact. This transformation is shifting forested areas towards the PA boundaries, potentially threatening conservation efforts by making wildlife more vulnerable. Socioeconomic surveys of 5769 households revealed that bigger landowners within the local communities played a significant role in this deforestation. Such community-driven forest alterations increased wildlife vulnerability by intensifying their interaction with forest surrounding communities. This study presents an interesting case of the process of forest transformation within PAs with the intersection of human-wildlife conflict and deforestation. For effective wildlife conservation, strategies need to address and rectify these forest cover transformations and focus on the wildlife habitats, ensuring conservation and coexistence for forests, humans and wildlife