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The Namche Conference: May 24-26,
2003 Participants and Presentations:
Mr. Tapan Kumar Nath |
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Mr. Tapan Kumar Nath (Chittagong,Bangladesh); email: tapankumarn@yahoo.com Abstract: Sitakunda Botanical Garden and Eco-Park of Chittagong, Bangladesh An exploratory survey of Buffer zone community, officials and visitors of the Sitakunda Botanical Garden and Eco-Park of Chittagong, Bangladesh was carried out to investigate the present economic condition of local people, their loses and benefits due to this Botanical Garden and Eco-Park establishment and the relationship between community peoples and authority of the park that exist. The study reveals that 32% families were dependent on the forests of Botanical Garden and Eco-Park of which most of them were in poorer strata of the community. But now only 17% families are getting benefits, maximum are seasonal. Only 12% of the total manpower in the garden and eco-park are employed permanently from the local community. Maximum employment is daily basis with insufficient payment of Tk. 80.00 per day which is not also paid regularly. This payment nature discourages local people to engage themselves as daily labor. The extraction outside the Botanical Garden and Eco-Park was not restricted by authority of the park but the passage (the road of park) to enter in forest was closed which raised the main conflict. On the other hand, this Botanical Garden and Eco-Park were enriching day by day through natural regeneration and artificial plantation, infrastructure development. About 700 to 800 visitors visited daily during festivals and 400 to 500 visited during winter season. The authors suggest resolving the existing conflicts between the people and park authority so that local community as well as the visitors could extract maximum benefits from the botanical garden and eco-park.
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