The numerous islands constituting the littoral forests of the Sundarbans have been formed by river-borne silts of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, the two main rivers of Bangladesh. The forests lie between latitudes 21°30’N and 22°31’N and between longitudes 89°E and 90°E.

The productive forest lands of 939820 acres of the Sundarbans produce only 15 million cubic feet of wood per annum at the present (1971)-one acre produces only 16 eft of timber per acre per annum. This poor yield is perhaps due to the inclusion of varied crops under one management plan, an improper management system, ill supervision and the complete reliance on nature for regeneration. The present (1971) poor yield of 16 eft of timber per acre per annum may still go down if proper attention is not given to restocking the forests under an efficient system of management instead of the current selection system.

At least two of the main littoral species, sundri and gewa can be managed in even-aged stands.

The Bangladesh Energy Study, sponsored by the Planning Commission and published a year ago, reviewed the estimates and surveys made of fuelwood consumption and requirements in the country. It concluded that the consumption of domestic firewood and other forms of vege.tativc fuels is unknown.
Since the use of wood as fuel far exceeds other uses in volume importance a proper study is now considered necessary.

The paper describes the main physical, economic and statistical determinants of fuelwood consumption in Bangladesh. It proceeds to describe survey methods and strategy for determining this statistic. Supply estimates are then briefly described.

Forest and forest products have provided food, shelter, clothing and other necessities of life to human beings since pre-historic days. With the development of knowledge, men gradually discovered better ways of living. Along with that they discovered better uses of forests and forest products. Thus, at different levels of the advancement of human civilization, men have utilized the forest and forest products in different ways to meet their socioeconomic needs. While men of the Stone Age were satisfied with their abodes in forest caves, eating roots, shoots and fruits of trees and having the leaves and barks of trees as their clothing, the modern men have found other uses for forests and forest products to cater to their socio-economic needs. Forests and trees today, therefore help men in agricultural development, industrial growth, economic advancement, recreation, environmental control and meet the demands of the human being in all walks of life, from cradle to coffin. It is an irony that realization of the importance of forests has been quite jalc. Nevertheless, this late realisation if properly implemented by different nations of the world might save the human being from total destruction. To arouse public consciousness concerning (i) the significance of forest wealth (ii) the direct and indirect benefits derived from the forests and (iii) the importance of forest as a factor in nature conservation the World Forestry Day is being celebrated on the 21st of March every year indifferent countries of the world.