BANGLADESH JOURNAL OF FOREST SCIENCE
A Half-yearly Peer Reviewed Journal of Bangladesh Forest Research Institute
A Half-yearly Peer Reviewed Journal of Bangladesh Forest Research Institute
This paper describes the community structure of two prominant forest types i.e., moist deciduous miscellaneous and riverian Khair-Sissu forests of Himalayan foot hills in relation to their analytic and synthetic characters. The importance value index (IVI) values recorded from moist deciduous miscellaneous forest were maximum for Mallotus philippinensis (113.28) and minimum for Cassia fistula (6.54). Similarly the IVI values in the riverian Khair-Sissu forest were maximum (218.02) for Dalbergia sissoo and minimum (16.46) for Sapium insigne. The species diversity (2.3796), beta diversity (2.9166) and equitability (14.6700) values were observed as maximum in moist deciduous miscellaneous forest, whereas the values for these parameters were minimum (0.8507, 1.3636 and 2.4915 respectively) in the riverian Khair-Sissu forest. However, the values for concentration of dominance was maximum (0.6827) in riverian Khair-Sissu forest and minimum (0.1071) in moist deciduous miscellaneous forest. The soils in both the forest types were observed as alluvial, coarse textured and almost neutral in reaction.
The beetle, Podontia quatuordecinipunctata Linn. (Chrysomelidae : Coleoptera) is a major defoliator of amra (Spondias pinnata (L. f.) Kurz and S. dulcis Forst, f.) in Bangladesh. Besides Spondias spp., the pest also attacks Ficus elastica Roxb. and Duabanga grandiflora (Roxb. ex DC) Walp. Both the adult and the larva cause partial or complete defoliation affecting the growth of the plant seriously. The peak infestation period occurred during August and September. Younger trees are most heavily attacked. The incidence is more pronounced in the hilly areas than in the plains. The pest was controlled by foliar application of cypermethrin (Ripcord 10 EC) @ 12 ml/10 litres of water.
The genus Xylocarpus (Family: Meliaceace) is represented by five species, namely X.australisicus Raidley, X. granatum Koening, X. molucccnsis Lamk. Roem, X. gangeticus Parkison and X. parvifolius, and they are distributed in the tropical mangrove forests (Saenger ct al. 1993). The two speciesX. granatum and X. molucccnsis are found also in the Sundarbans, Khulna (Chaffey and Sandom 1985) and Chakaria Sundarbans of Chittagong (Brandis 1906, Troup 1921).
The Community Forestry Project, undertaken in 1981 was the first governmentinitiated and large-scale participatory forestry management programme in Bangladesh. Under this project the participants were promised 50 percent share from the sales proceeds of final tree harvest in addition to 100 percent of all other benefits generated . from agricultural crops, thinning materials and pruning. In 1993 five agroforestry plots, each having an area of 1.21 hectares of land were harvested at Madhyapara, Dinajpur. Although rotation was planned for a period of seven years trees were actually felled one year later. It has been the country’s first logged-over area under participatory approach. Half of the sales proceeds was distributed to the participants. This example inspired both the participants and the Forest Department.
Financial viability of the system has been explained in terms of internal rate of return, benefit-cost ratio and present net worth under three situations, viz. a) financial viability of the whole system, b) financial gain of the participants, and c) financial gain of the Forest Department. While the system as a whole is found to be highly prospective,the results also show that the benefits generated to both the participants and the Forest Department are also much encouraging. A sensitivity analysis allowing probable variations in cost and benefits reveals no financial risk of the system under any criteria. Social impacts of the project and some problems have been pointed out.
Green and freshly felled poles have been treated by a simple method and cheap chemicals. The equipment can be located very close to the site of felling and the treatment can be carried out by semi-skilled workmen. An experiment was carried out with this method on five indigenous wood species namely: garjan (Dipterocarpns turbinatus), kao (Garcenia cowa), jam (Syzygiuni grande), kalibatna (Qnercus fenestrata) and rai batna (Quercus thonisoni) with 10% copper sulphate solution at the felling site of Chunati Forest Range, Chittagong. Analysis of the Results on the penetration and the retention of the preservative inside the pole indicates that the entire portion of the sap wood around the pole was completely penetrated and the required retention was obtained.
Albizia falcataria wood has been studied for the suitability of manufacturing cement bonded particleboard. This species failed to produce board in workable conditions with the untreated chips. A substantial improvement of properties was observed when the boards were made with the chips treated in cold water. The boards were tested for determining the strength and dimensional stability. The product was found to be dimensionally stable after soaking in water. Even though bending strength was found to be low, the tensile strength passed the standard specification. Cement bonded particleboard made with this species can be used where dimensional stability is necessary.
Studies were made to assess the physiological maturity for harvesting the seed of Prosopis juliflora with high germination and vigour. Sufficient number of flowers were tagged at the time of anthesis. The developing pods were collected at weekly intervals, and pod and seed development were studied at each collection. Pod and seed weight increased with the increase of age and reached the maximum at 91 days after anthesis (DAA). In this stage pod colour turned from green to straw yellow. The seed extracted at this stage resulted in maximum seed weight,germination and vigour potential. Since the germination potential andvigour of this species started declining after this stage (91 DAA), the physiological
maturity stage for honey mesquite (P. juliflora) could be fixed at about 91 daysafter anthesis.
Schumannianthus dichotoma (Family-Marantaceae), locally known as patipata, is cultivated in water logged and swampy lands over the
greater part of Bangladesh. Plantations of S. dichotoma are established using rhizomes (Mohiuddin and Rashid 1988, Rashid et al. 1993).
Attempts have been made at Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI), Chittagong to raise seedlings of this species from fruits which are available free of cost as they have no utility. This paper describes the method of nursery development from collection of fruits to raising of seedlings in polybags.
Keora (Sonneratiaapetala Buch.-Ham.faccourds for almost 95% of the successful mangrove plantations in the coastal areas of Bangladesh (RIMS 1997). In Chittagong coast, it constitutes 22% of the plantations. It is not much commercially valuable species. Moreover, the plantations are severely infested by a beehole borer, Zeuzera conferta (Baksha 1996). Replacement of S. apetala preferably by more valuable species that appear at later stages of succession is needed to ensure sustainability of the plantations. With this in view, underplanting trial in the established S. apetala plantations with different mangrove species was initiated. An interim report (Siddiqi et al. 1992) shows success and suitability of underplanting in western coastline
Physical and mechanical properties, durability and treatability characteristics of
21 timber species have been collated. Enduses of these species have been evaluated.
Based on the various uses, the species have been recommended as priority species for
plantation.
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