TITLE:
Actors’ Power, Livelihood Assets and Participatory Forestry in Bangladesh: Evidence from the Sal Forests Area
AUTHORS:
K. K. Islam, Hyakumura Kimihiko, Masakazu Tani, Max Krott, Noriko Sato
KEYWORDS:
Participatory Forestry, Actor, Power, Livelihood Assets, Sal Forests, Bangladesh
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Forestry,
Vol.4 No.5B,
October
30,
2014
ABSTRACT: Decentralize in forest management policies
towards more people-oriented approaches has become major policy trends in many
of the world’s developing countries during the last decade. However, the power
of important actors to misuse the participatory forestry (PF) approach for
their self-interests has been stated as a main problem to success. So, this
study attempted to identify the most powerful actors and the extent at which
they influence the outcomes of PF, and also to measure the impact of PF on
livelihood assets of participants. The empirical data were collected from the
well-established PF programs at Madhupur Sal forests area of Bangladesh. The
results showed that the forest department (FD) proved itself as the most
powerful and influential actor in every element of power analysis in PF.
Regarding to livelihood analysis, the results revealed that the overall value
of participants’ livelihood assets was 0.85 and it was significantly differed
from the non-participants value of 0.66. However, the development of human,
physical and financial assets was not indicating a decent improvement like as
natural and social assets of participants. So, it is necessary to pay more
attention to boost up participants’ human and financial assets through
intensive training and adopting proper tree-crop production techniques, and
also ensuring alternative livelihoods approaches to the local people. In
addition, the local government will need to pay more emphasis on constructing
village roads and infrastructure so as to enhance physical assets of the local
people. Finally, the study would recommend promoting PF with apposite government
facilities and also empowering local participants in order to balance the power
among different actors, and this will facilitate the participants in governing
all of their development activities efficiently.