Community Participation in Agroforestry Development: Lessons Learned from a Collaborative Research Project
Community participation is now considered as an important element of any development programs. For development, adoption, and promotion of any agricultural technology, effective community participation is essential. In this chapter, we discuss the process
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Community Participation in Agroforestry Development: Lessons Learned from a Collaborative Research Project
Community participation is now considered as an important element of any development programs. For development, adoption, and promotion of any agricultural technology, effective community participation is essential. In this chapter, we discuss the process and level of community participation in agroforestry development, state of agroforestry, and participant’s opinion on sustainability of agroforestry. We also discuss the challenges and opportunities of agroforestry development. By using several tools of participatory rural appraisal, relevant field data were collected from a collaborative agroforestry research project being implemented in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh, by scholars of University of Chittagong. In order to ensure spontaneous local participation, project authority has first attempted to create trust in participants through continuous interactions, repeated explanation of project support and benefits, and holding several meetings in the presence of all villagers, local NGO and agricultural officers, school teachers, and village leaders. Villagers selected 31 project participants from three villages considering their willingness to join, allocating one acre of shifting cultivation land, and cooperating with project authority. Considering participant’s preference and experts’ opinion, crop combination was selected and an agri-horti-silvicultural type of agroforestry system was developed. Even though participants used to grow agricultural crops along hill slope every alternate year, now they cultivate every year across the hill slope. A benefit–cost ratio for agricultural crops was estimated at 3:1. Planted seedlings are growing well, and average survival rate is more than 70 %. More than 80 % participants are interested to continue agroforestry even after project funding ends, and 54 % of them desire to expand agroforestry in other areas. Even though they have been rigorously motivated, some participants did not work according to project authority’s recommendations. For future development and promotion of agroforestry by involving ethnic communities in CHT, it is suggested to work closely in small areas in collaboration with local partners.
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 T.K. Nath et al., Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) in Bangladesh, World Forests 22, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42387-6_6
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6.1
Background
Much of the land in Southeast Asian countries is dominated by mountainous topography and populated by diverse cultural minority communities. Expansive forests and sparse populations allowed these communities to practice variations of shifting cultivation, which enabled them to coexist in relative harmony with their environment (Cairns and Garrity 1999). This cultivation system occupies a distinct place in the indigenous economy and constitutes a vital part of the livelihood and socioeconomic setu
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