Floodplains

IUCN Bangladesh has undertaken this initiative in association with Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) under the Sustainable Environment Management Programme (SEMP) in the Madhumati Floodplain. Under this project one of the interventions is to promote alternative livelihood options. Baira farming was one of the options suggested by the people of that area.

The overall objective of the project was to improve environmental quality of the degraded canals/beels/rivers to allow for proper functioning of migratory routes for fish and other organisms, to increase the crop production by facilitating irrigation and thereby effect socio-economic uplift of the local communities, especially for the women and the disadvantaged. This report shows how this was accomplished.

The loss of plants from floodplain ecosystems have resulted in further degradation of other ecological functions. To stop and reverse this trend, massive plantation programmes were carried out at three floodplain sites: Padma-Jamuna, Brahmaputra-Shitalakshya and Madhumati Floodplain. The overall objective being to increase native tree coverage and enhance productivity by establishing plantations through people’s participation. The report shows how this was accomplished.

This book primarily based on observation made during field trips to different haors and floodplains in the SEMP project areas by plant experts, IUCNB staff and partner NGOs. Experience and ideas of the local communities of these wetlands were also considered while preparing the manuscript. Some of the information has been drawn from existing published and unpublished accounts. This book will provide a guideline for future wetland plant resource conservation and management.

The present report compiles the awareness raising initiatives take under the Community Based Floodplain Resource Management Project, a component of the SEMP. It details out the justification of such interventions, approaches considered and chosen activities to enhance people’s awareness level at the project areas in the floodplains. A number of recommendations are also suggested to make the initiative more participatory and effective in attaining the targeted impacts.

This report aims to provide proper guidelines and mechanisms for communities, to enable them to manage and sustain the current positive trends into the future. The recommended issues and concerns articulated by the stakeholders have been considered as priority components while formulating the “Exit Plan” of the Community Based Haor and Floodplain Resource Management Projects of SEMP.

This book tells the story of times past, when wetlands were considered as wastelands and decision makers and managers were unaware of their benefits, a time when the adverse impacts of hydropower and irrigation schemes on ecosystems and people downstream seemed unimportant. Today wetland ecosystems are viewed as essential elements in integrated river basin planning, which draws upon the most appropriate modern science and traditional knowledge.