Baul Tarit Kumar, Peuly Tajkera Akhter, Nandi Rajasree, Kar Shiba, Karmakar Shyamal
Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, 4331, Bangladesh.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.
Environ Manage. 2022 May;69(5):906-918. doi: 10.1007/s00267-022-01598-8. Epub 2022 Jan 25.
Homestead forests play an important role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. This study investigated homestead forest owners' perceptions on climate change and associated impacts, as well as the role that homestead forests could play to enhance households' climate adaptation in Bandarban hill district of Bangladesh. Methods involved randomly surveying a total of 176 homestead households at three different hill altitudes: low, medium, and high. We also analyzed the meteorological data on local rainfall and temperature for the period of 1990 to 2019. Results showed that most (76-94%) of the homestead forest owners perceived an increasing erratic pattern of annual temperature and rainfall which was supported by the analysis of local meteorological data. Forest owners´ perceptions towards changes in tree phenology, increase in food insecurity, landslides, and pest infestation, and decrease in crop production, soil fertility, and seasonal streamflow were revealed as pieces of evidence of climate change impacts that varied significantly with hill altitudes and associated ecosystems. About 66% to 97% of the housheolds perceived that homestead forests could play a pivotal role in enhancing their capacity to adapt with the changing climate by supplying diverse products, services, and environmental benefits. Understanding and perceptions of the environmental benefits of homestead forests also significantly varied with the type of households´ construction, income, and literacy of the household members. Our results will help policymakers to ensure these small-scale homestead forests are conserved since they could also provide multiple environmental benefits e.g., carbon sequestration in addition to enhancing community climate adaptation.
宅旁森林在气候变化适应和缓解方面发挥着重要作用。本研究调查了宅旁森林所有者对气候变化及其相关影响的认知，以及宅旁森林在增强孟加拉国班达班山区家庭气候适应能力方面可能发挥的作用。研究方法包括在三个不同海拔高度（低、中、高）随机调查总共176户宅旁家庭。我们还分析了1990年至2019年期间当地降雨和温度的气象数据。结果表明，大多数（76%-94%）宅旁森林所有者察觉到年温度和降雨量的不稳定模式在增加，这得到了当地气象数据分析的支持。森林所有者对树木物候变化、粮食不安全加剧、山体滑坡、虫害侵扰以及作物产量、土壤肥力和季节性径流减少的认知，被揭示为气候变化影响的证据，这些影响因海拔高度和相关生态系统的不同而有显著差异。约66%至97%的家庭认为，宅旁森林通过提供多样的产品、服务和环境效益，在增强他们适应气候变化的能力方面可以发挥关键作用。对宅旁森林环境效益的理解和认知也因家庭建筑类型、收入以及家庭成员的识字率而有显著差异。我们的研究结果将有助于政策制定者确保保护这些小规模的宅旁森林，因为它们除了增强社区气候适应能力外，还能提供多种环境效益，如碳固存。
