Mangrove Restoration in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a deltaic country with a 710 km coastline and numerous newly accreted offshore islands in the central and eastern coastal regions. Natural mangrove forest (the Sundarbans) occupies about 100 km of coastline in the southwest, which protects the lives and properties of the coastal population of that area. The depletion of the forest stock of the Sundarbans was reported in 1875 due to the large-scale clearings by the woodcutters and uncertainty in natural regeneration. The restoration of the Sundarbans in the name of enrichment plantation and assisted natural regeneration was formally introduced in 1959 with Excoecaria agallocha followed by the introduction of mangrove and mainland (non-mangrove) species in the moderate to high saline zone and raised lands in the freshwater zone, respectively in 1975. Chakaria Sundarbans, the second largest natural mangrove forest on the east coast, was highly degraded with the rapid expansion of aquaculture between 1976 and 1989. Tremendous human interferences significantly altered the site condition, interrupting natural recovery. Coastal afforestation was initiated in 1966 with two pioneer mangrove species (Sonneratia apetala and Avicennia officinalis). Some afforested sites require attention for restoration due to natural and manmade causes. Bangladesh Forest Department adopted restoration activities with the technical support of the Bangladesh Forest Research Institute and other agencies. However, all the restoration activities for the Sundarbans, Chakaria Sundarbans, and coastal afforested sites had some success and failure stories. The success and failure of a mangrove restoration activity depends on planning (active or passive restoration), selection of suitable sites and species, planting materials, local community involvement, monitoring, evaluation and plantation management.