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Call to ensure rights of forest dwellers

Staff Correspondent
The government should ensure the rights of forest dwellers to the natural resources and the ownership of the forest in order to preserve forest, speakers at a regional conference said yesterday-
Conservation of nature is a cultural practice and it is not possible to preserve forest by forcibly curbing the rights of forest dwellers, they said.
The forest dwellers never destroy forest as it is livelihood and part of culture and heritage to them, they added.
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association (BELA) organised the conference on Protecting Forest Rights and Promoting Village Forest’ at the BRAC Inn auditorium of the city.
Community leaders and development workers from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan took part in the conference.
Around 120 people from all forest areas of the country also attended the programme.
Referring to the legal developments that have taken place in Nepal and India, the speakers emphasised the need to define and protect forest rights' and give the forest department the role to monitor and provide technical assistance for forest management.
They also called for framing rules to facilitate village forest management' that requires the powers of the government on reserve forests to be handed over to nearby communities.
Dismissing the notion of social afforestation as a model to regenerate natural forest, the participants said that mere tree plantation' cannot deliver ecological services that natural forests can.
They called for protecting the natural • forests for the benefit of the forest dwell-
ers and not to treat forest for commercial or market purposes.
At the concluding session, BELA handed over two draft laws on 'Village Forest Rules' and 'Forest Right Act and Rule' to State Minister for Environment and Forest Hasan Mahmud, urging him to take necessary actions to establish the rights of forest dwellers to the forest.
Hasan Mahmud said the government is facing difficulties to protect and preserve the forest.
He also emphasised the need to involve the forest people to ensure sustainable forest management.
Souparna Lahiri presented a keynote paper on the implementation of the forest act in India.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan of BEIA and Sanjeev Drong, secretary general of Adivasi Forum, chaired different sessions of the conference.