Community-based conservation of village common forest in Rowangchari, Bandarban
With the goal of restoration and conservation of the community managed forest resources in the Bandarban hill district of Bangladesh, the organization Tahzingdong has been implementing this project supported by Arannayk Foundation of Bangladesh since 2009. The project covers 12,919.64 hectares of nine community conserved areas which are commonly called village common forests, and it includes more than 1000 indigenous forest dependent families. Tahzingdong has built two community houses as a part of institutional capacity building and installed two water supply technologies that capture more than 387,000 liter of clean water in a month from the forests using a gravitational flow system. This system decreased water scarcity and 70% of water borne diseases within the community. Moreover, the organization has been planting 28,545 seedlings in the community managed forests including bamboo, cane and endangered species (i.e. Podocarpus neriifolius, Mangifera sylvataca). 2,680 fruit seedlings in the homestead help to increase forest and biodiversity conservation, as well as to prevent soil erosion of the water bodies. 300 sets of improved cooking stoves and 20 sets of solar panels have been provided that contribute to a clean and green environment. As a result, 50% of household-based biomass and the resulting CO2 have been reduced in the villages and improved the women health condition as the improved cooking stoves emit less smoke. Alternative livelihood generating support initiatives (i.e. agriculture, livestock, small-scale business and nursery) have been started which increased the income of vulnerable communities.