Cultivation of oilpalm in Bangladesh
started in 1979. Six hundred hectares of
plantations have already been raised in
Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Sylhet forest
divisions on hilly land.
Oilpalms are best grown in many
countries located between 0° to 10° latitudes
(Hartley 1977). Bangladesh lies between
21°25′ to 26°38′ N latitudes. Therefore,
before undertaking ventures of large scale
plantation of oilpalm in Bangladesh, due consideration should be given on her climatic
and soil suitability aspects.

Gamar is a fast growing hardwood
species native to Bangladesh, India, Burma
and other parts of South East Asia. It
grows in a variety of sites but is at its
best in well drained soil. Gamar is already
a potentially important plantation species
in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Malaysia and
Brazil (Gibson 1975). It produces white
durable timber with good working properties
and has good pulping characteristics. In Bangladesh, since 1974, Gamar has
been planted on a 14 years’ rotation in
about 1.4 thousand hectares in the Pulp
Wood Plantation Division, Kaptai. The
future plan is to increase the plantation
over a larger area. Its primary object is

It has been shown that conventional
water repellent when applied to wood
lose their bond strength on weathering
(Voulgaridis 1980). It suggests that the
bond formed between wood and conventional
water repellents may lead to easy
detachment of the deposit from the cell
wall during exposure to weather If the
loss of effectiveness associated with the
above effect is significant, the use of water
repellent substances, able to form stronger
bonds (e. g. H-bonds or covalent bonds)
with the cell wall, may lead to enhanced
long term performance.

An experiment was designed to observe
the effect of tending treatments on the
growth and development of Teak (Tec tana,
grandis L.) saplings in Andermanik forest,
Chittagong, in 1978. It was noticed that
great variations existed among the plants
after five months of planting. Close
examinations suggested that the variability was
related to the size of Teak stumps planted.
This variability had a marked effect on
survival and early development of the
plants.

Coconut palm ( Cocos nucifera) is one
of the most important economic trees in
the tropica] countries. Coconut is planted
on a large scale along the coastal belt of
Bangladesh, particularly, in the districts of
Noakhali, Patuakhali, Barisal and Khulna.
According to the national survey of 1980-81,
there are about 23.4 million mature and
immature Coconut trees in the village
groves ( Anon. J 982 ), Many of these trees
will be overmature in the next few years
and will cross the prime age for the profitable
production of nuts. These trees will need
replacement by newer and more productive
varieties. This necessitates proper
utilization of overmature Coconut stems in
order to make the felling and replanting
operations economically viable. This will

The Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera
tigris tigris Linn.) is an endemic subspecies
in the Indian Sub-continent. Only a
few decades ago it had a wider range of
distribution throughout this region. But
due to steady reduction of the forest area
and ruthless killing, this animal is steadily
disappearing from its previous range. Now
it is confined to the Sundarbans only, where
a good population of tiger is still available.
The tiger plays an important role in
the ecosystem of the mangrove forests. It
occupies the top stratum in the food chain.
It mainly feeds on deer population which
in turn have a great influence on the
regeneration of different plant species.
Moreover, the tiger acts as a guard to protect
the forests from illicit felling and has the
potentiality of attracting local and foreign
tourists.

Among pole species in Bangladesh
Sundri is the most favoured one because
of its very good strength properties and
abundant availability. These facts have
prompted the Bangladesh Power
Development Board and the Bangladesh
Rural Electrification Board to show a keen
interest in using Sundri poles in power
transmission line in Bangladesh.
Sundri pole comes of a stem of Sundri
which occurs as a small to medium sized
evergreen tree with a grooved and buttressed
stem and
It grows
region
characteristic pneumatophores,
gregariously in the deltaic
of Bangladesh where it occurs
throughout the tidal forests. It is estimated
that the Sundarban forests could provide
more than 50,000 Sundri poles annually in
perpetual yield. (Latif 1965 ).

Teak has always been the principal
species in the plantation programmes of
Bangladesh. More than 70% of total plantation in the hill forests is composed
of Teak (Andersen 1969, Slavicky 1978,
White 1979).

Fibre dimension indicates the suitability
of a vegetable fibrous raw material for
making pulp. About 600 species of hardwoods,
about 20 species of bamboos and
a few species of grass are available in the
forests of Bangladesh. Of these, 40 woods, 13
bamboos, 6 grasses and 10 miscellaneous
fibrous materials are reported in this
review. None of these species can alone
feed any paper mill except Gewa wood
which is exclusively used for newsprint
pulp at Khulna Newsprint Mills. Karnaphuli
Paper and Rayon Mills are utilising
a few bamboo species along with other hardwoods. Grasses like Nal, Khagra &
Ekrah are partly used in Sylhet Pulp Mills.
Most of the wood, bamboo and grass
species are found scattared all over the
forests of Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts
and Sylhet. Due to inaccessibility into
forest and heavy cost of felling and transportation,
few of these species can be used
economically as pulping raw material.
However, this report will be useful to pulp,
paper and board industries in finding out
alternative species to the present source of
raw materials.

The gluing characteristics of many of
the indigenous timber species of Bangladesh
are not known. Adequate knowledge of
the gluing characteristics is essential for
optimum utilization of the timber resources
by the repsective industries like plywood
and laminated wood. It is established a
fact that gluability is a function of density
of wood, its structure, presence of extraneous
materials, etc. The study was undertaken
in finding out the gluability of Champa
veneer in the manufacture of plywood. Champa (Michelia champaca) a large
tree with a long straight cylindrical bole of
18 to 21 m in length and often of large
girth, is found in the Chittagong Hill
Tracts forests of Bangladesh. It is light,
(sp. gr. approx. 0.53), soft, straight grained,
even and medium textured. Its sapwood is
white, and the heartwood is light yellowish
brown to olive-brown, somewhat lustrous,
smooth working and takes good polish.
It weighs 497 to 546 kg/m3 at 12 percent
moisture content. The timber dries well