Dr. Mazlin Bin MOKHTAR Professor, Principal Fellow and Director

1. The Paradigm Shift in Forest Governance of Bangladesh – An Institutional Reform Analysis Institute Alam Sekitar dan Pembangunan Institute for Environment and Development Conference on Governance in Bangladesh: Retrospective and Future Prospects 26-29 November 2011, Dhaka BRAC University Dr. Mazlin Bin MOKHTAR Professor, Principal Fellow and Director Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 43600 UKM BANGI, Selangor, Malaysia E-mail: mazlin@ukm.my; & Md. Abdullah Abraham HOSSAIN Assistant Conservator of Forests Development Planning Unit Ban Bhaban, Agargaon, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh E-mail: nobu_fd@yahoo.com;

2. OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION • INTRODUCTION • ROLE OF DONORS AND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS IN FORESTRY SECTOR • 3. INSTITUTIONAL REFORM ANALYSIS • - Evolution of institutional arrangement • - Action arena of forest institutions • GOVERANCE CHALLENGE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE • 5. CONCLUSION

3. INTRODUCTION The origin and evolution of Forest Department (FD) in Bangladesh hold a unique historical background of more than a century. It begins with same sequences of past events of Indian forest service. The oldest departments among government agencies. It started functioning since 1862 with: - The Imperial Forest Service - The Provincial Forest Service and - The Sub-ordinate Forest Service.

4. The then forest governance institution was shaped by the national forest policy directions of 1894 to provide guidelines for formulating acts and rules which was mainly command and control mechanism under top-down approach. Large tracts of forestland put under reservation and a regulatory mechanism was imposed to control rights and privileges of local people. There were policy directions in forest management to ensure the provisions for land use change especially for agriculture, grazing and harvest of minor forest produce by the local people from the forest.

5. Forest was also managed to provide ecological services especially to protect stiff slopes, downstream cultivated plains and generate revenue for the government. Experts’ support was sought from time to time to improve forest management and amend law and policy to shape better forest governance institution in the country. But, at the end, outcomes of this forest governance institution were not satisfactory. Considerable losses of biodiversity, deforestation and degradation of forestland, encroachment, illicit felling and severe conflict among forest users become growing challenges of forest management resulting into the governance crisis in the forest administration.

6. Similar situation has been observed across the globe and it was felt necessary to find alternative governance institutions to address these challenges in the country. Researchers have published a number of scholarly literatures and explained that decentralized forest governance is more effective to protect forest degradation and biodiversity conservation. Over the last four decades (40 years), government of Bangladesh has taken measures in shaping decentralized forest governance to address poverty reduction, sustenance of livelihood support, increase biodiversity and above all caring for the environment in the country (Planning Commission 2009).

7. Donors and development partners had significant contributions in this effort to bring paradigm shift which was not systematically examined in the past. Therefore, an effort has been made here to examine the donors’ influence in shaping the discourse and practice of good governance within the forestry sector of Bangladesh It was done mainly to complement the institutional reform analysis for strategizing global collaboration of climate change mitigation.

8. Improvement of forest cover and changes in outcomes of forest management largely depend on effective governance (Agrawal et al. 2008), But there exists numerous governance challenges before hand to avail the upcoming benefits of payment for ecosystem services through adopting reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and REDD+ mechanism in Bangladesh.

9. REDD and REDD+ mechanism are now developed to address climate change mitigation through collaborative arrangement between developed countries and developing countries. Incentives, information and institutions are three key elements which must be given due attention to realize REDD and REDD+ in a country (Wertz-Kanounnikoff and Angelsen 2009). Besides, a strong monitoring mechanism along with reporting and verification system is recommended to implement REDD and REDD+ mechanism in the country. It seeks institutional reform analysis immediately.

10. An institutional reform analysis is carried out by: • Reviewing institutional arrangements; and • Using IAD framework to articulate action arena at different hierarchic levels of forest institutions/ • Results of this analysis revealed that there is a paradigm shift in forest governance of Bangladesh. • It is also evident that institutional evolution of forest governance made arrangement for community participation in forest management but specific capacity building for data mining and monitoring will be required to cope with the upcoming challenges in the country.

11. This study provides empirically grounded insights on the evolution of governance practices for those who are concerned about commercialization of global politics on climate change mitigation. This paper is seemed to be useful document for concerned politicians, policy makers, government officials, development partners, researchers and academia who are interested for the adoption of REDD strategy in Bangladesh and elsewhere.

12. ROLE OF DONORS AND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS IN FORESTRY SECTOR We have examined the influences of donors and development partners in shaping the discourse and practices of good governance within the forestry sector of Bangladesh. Here we have used 40 years’ historical data on project based development interventions, mainly financed by donors and development partners and analyzed at decadal scale. It has been observed that they have contributed significantly in shaping the discourse and practices of good governance within the forestry sector of Bangladesh.

13. Table 1 Development Interventions by the Donors and Development Partners

16. INSTITUTIONAL REFORM ANALYSIS Institutional reform analysis has been carried out by: - Reviewing elements of institutional arrangement - Applying IAD framework to articulate action arena at different hierarchic levels of forest governance institutions in Bangladesh. Thus it provides insights on evolution in different elements of institutional arrangement at decadal scale and articulation of action arena provides institutional dynamics at different hierarchical levels of forest governance institutions in Bangladesh.

17. Evolution of Institutional Arrangement Policy, law, act, institution and organization are distinct elements of institutional arrangements that form forest policy framework (Hossain et al. 2011). There have been evolutionary changes in these elements of institutional arrangement due to development interventions in the forestry sector of Bangladesh by the donors and development partners. During the last four decades, contemporary issues of forest management and local needs have been brought under policy consideration and accordingly support from donors and development partners were sought.

18. Table 2 Evolutionary Changes in Institutional Arrangement of Forestry Sector in Bangladesh.

20. Evolutionary changes in the elements of institutional arrangement also contributed in shaping the discourse and practice of good governance within the forestry sector of Bangladesh. Table 3 Evolutionary Changes in Shaping Discourse and Practice of Good Governance in Bangladesh

21. Action Arena of Forest Institutions Institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework is one of the promising frameworks for institutional analysis and helps articulate action arena of the institution (Ostrom 2005). An action arena exposes institutional dynamics as a result of certain interaction among participants within a given action situation. An action situation refers to the specific type of interaction which produces collective goods and services and thus forms governance structure to provide desired outcome (Hossain et al. 2011).

22. Here we have defined three distinct hierarchic levels of forest governance institutions in Bangladesh: • Ministry level; • Agency level and • Community level. • There are several action arenas at each hierarchic level of these forest institutions. • During the last four decades some action arenas are either changed or newly developed at all levels of forest governance institutions because of changing context of forest management in Bangladesh. • A number of contemporary issues and local needs are now taken into account of forest management in Bangladesh.

23. Table 4 Action Arena at Different Hierarchic Levels of Forest Governance Institution

24. It is clear from above table that different participants are newly included at the ministry level of forest governance institutions. Their action situation is pro-active to provide outcomes like new policy goals, constitutional rules, external funding arrangement, professional education and research findings. Honorable ministers, government officials and researchers are invited by the conventional secretariats to join dialogues on global environmental issues and CoPs. This mechanism of dialogue makes them pro-active in setting new policy goals, generate new information and arrangement of external funding in the country.

25. For example, UNFCCC organize policy dialogues on climate change issues and assigned country parties to arrange for documentation and undertake programme on those issues. Accordingly initial national communication, national action programme (NAP) for combating desertification 2005, national adaptation programme of action (NAPA) 2005 and finally climate change strategy and action plan 2009 have been prepared in the country.

26. Similarly, donors and development partners usually come up with funding support on contemporary issues of forest management. Accordingly, ministry, government agencies and research organizations undertake technical assistance and development projects in the country. For example, forestry sector master plan (1995-2015), coastal afforestation project (CAP), 2nd forestry project, thana banayan and nursery development project (TBNDP), forestry sector project (FSP), coastal greenbelt project (CGP), forest resources management project (FRMP), nishorgo support project (NSP) and integrated protected area co-management project (IPAC) are main technical assistance and investment projects in the country.

27. All these projects significantly contributed in evolutionary changes of forest governance institutions and addressed contemporary issues of forest management in Bangladesh. Due to these development interventions, new participants are observed in the action arena of forest institutions at all levels. Earlier, Forest Department implements afforestation progamme by itself. But now Forest Department makes agreements with other land owning agencies like Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED), Bangladesh Railway and Roads and Highway Department (RHD) to establish strip plantations and greenbelt. NGOs are also invited to organize individual participants in plantation programme.

28. Participants at the agency level of forest institutions generally remain re-active in making collective choice rules and operational rules due to organizational mandate for the achievement of policy goals and implementation of projects. Participatory social forestry and co-management in the Protected Areas (PAs) are two distinct governance processes so far developed within the forest governance institutions in Bangladesh. It has opened up scopes for new action arenas at the community level of forest institutions in Bangladesh.

29. This has created the decentralized forest governance institutions in Bangladesh. Participants at this level are active for involvement in the participatory benefit sharing agreements (PBSA) and development of operational rules of forest management. This is a paradigm shift to decentralized forest governance which took shape after 40 years of development interventions for addressing poverty reduction, biodiversity protection and caring for the environment in the country. But there are new governance challenges beforehand due to growing concern of climate change impacts in the country (Ministry of Environment and Forest 2009).

30. GOVERNANCE CHALLENGE FOR CLIMAE CHANGE RESPONSE Climate change is now a reality and Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries of the world. Among different response options to climate change impacts, REDD and REDD+ concept has been evolved as an important climate change mitigation option that integrates local, national and global actions under common umbrella for reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in the forestland (Angelsen et al. 2009). But there are growing needs to make changes in institutions and their inter-relations to play some new roles and responsibilities by desired forest governance institutions (Larson & Petkova 2011).

31. From Ostrom’s work it is clear that increasing the availability of information and minimizing the transaction cost can establish effective institutions of self-governing networks (Stocker 1998). Capacity building for data mining can increase the flow of information for decision making. The way REDD+ negotiation is taking place is also going to establish a set of institutions of self-governing networks on the ground. REDD+ payment is performance based and it has to establish monitoring, reporting and verification mechanism.

32. So, participants of the existing forest governance institutions need specific capacity building for data mining and monitoring to cope with the upcoming challenges and to avail the benefits of payment for ecosystem services through adopting REDD and REDD+ mechanism in the country. Hence, further institutional reforms are required at all levels of forest institutions to enable data mining and monitoring.

33. CONCLUSION This paper has discussed the influence of donors and development partners in shaping the discourse and practice of good governance within the forestry sector of Bangladesh and thus complemented in institutional reform analysis which clearly indicates a paradigm shift in forest governance of Bangladesh. Analytical results have also revealed that institutional evolution of forest governance made arrangement for community participation in forest management but specific capacity building for data mining and monitoring will be required to cope with the upcoming challenges and to avail the benefits of payment for ecosystem services through adopting REDD and REDD+ mechanism in the country.

34. Therefore, we recommend that further institutional reforms are required to enable data mining and monitoring for strategizing global collaboration of performance based climate change mitigation under REDD and REDD+ approach. Here a qualitative analysis has been carried out by using historical data of project based development interventions in Bangladesh.

35. This analysis may have shortcomings in terms of analytical procedures, and more research is needed to interpret empirically grounded insights on the evolution of governance practices in Bangladesh. Thus it would help further institutional reform analysis by those who are concerned about commercialization of global politics on climate change mitigation. This paper is seemed to be useful document for concerned politicians, policy makers, government officials, development partners, researchers and academia who are interested for the adoption of REDD strategy in Bangladesh and elsewhere.

36. Thank you for listening Terimakasi & ab¨ev` ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We are obliged for the support of the Institute of Governance Studies, BRAC University and Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath to joining and presenting our paper in the Conference on Governance in Bangladesh: retrospective and future prospects held on 26-28 November 2011. We also record our appreciation to LESTARI, UKM for partial support to Prof. Dr. Mazlin Bin Mokhtar to participate and present a paper at the conference. We are grateful to Forest Department, Bangladesh to allow us to write this paper.