Stakeholders' perception on indigenous community-based management of village common forests in Chittagong hill tracts, Bangladesh

• Published in: Forest policy and economics Vol. 100; pp. 102 - 112
• Main Authors: Uddin, Mohammad Nizam, Hossain, Mohammad Mosharraf, Chen, Yong, Siriwong, Wapakorn, Boonyanuphap, Jaruntorn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.03.2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Analytic hierarchy process; Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT); Community; Community involvement; Community participation; Community relations; Community-based Management (CBM); Cost control; Decision analysis; Decision making; Ecosystem services; Ecosystems; Forest management; Forests; Hierarchies; Indigenous peoples; Interest groups; Land tenure; Management; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Perception; Perceptions; Public officials; Regulation; Security; Stakeholders' perception; SWOT-AHP analysis; Tropical forests; Trust; Village Common Forests (VCF); Bangladesh; Village Common Forests (VCF); Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT); Community-based Management (CBM); Stakeholders' perception; SWOT-AHP analysis
• ISSN: 1389-9341; 1872-7050
• DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2018.12.005

Village Common Forests (VCFs) are patches of tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen hill forests in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs), Bangladesh that are conserved through voluntary community participation for community perceived sustenance of ecosystem services. VCFs are currently under informal management without any optimal model of Community-Based Management (CBM). By using strength, weakness, opportunity, threat (SWOT) technique combined with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), this paper assessed the perceptions of four major stakeholder groups. Their perceptions were analyzed to ascertain the priority factors related to CBM adoption in VCFs of CHT. The four stakeholder groups were – researchers from academia, government officials, NGO staffers and local indigenous community leaders. Results indicated an overall negative perception among all the stakeholders regarding the adoption of CBM in VCFs. “No land tenure security” was the most serious weakness factor for the implementation of CBM in VCFs among all stakeholder groups except government officials. “Unity and easy decision process”, “Positive community attitude” and “Low management cost” were the most important strength factors respectively from academia, government, NGOs and community leaders. All the stakeholder groups identified “Relationship development between government and community” as the most important opportunity factor for CBM of VCFs. “Uncertainty of peace accord 1997 and 1900 CHT regulation implementation” was treated as the most damaging threat factor against the adoption of CBM in VCFs. Therefore, rebuilding indigenous peoples' confidence in government initiatives by counting them in the high-level decision-making process, ensuring land tenure security have been identified as the key initial interventions. [Display omitted] •SWOT-AHP demonstrated that there was lack of support from stakeholders to adopt CBM in VCFs of CHT.•The study showed lack of confidence among indigenous communities on government initiatives to adopt CBM in VCFs.•Formal recognition of land right was identified as key factor to implement CBM in VCFs.•Before going to scale up CBM in VCFs of CHT piloting was recommended.