An Overview on the Current Status and Conservation Practices of Forest Land and Plant Diversity of Bangladesh

Abstract

The study is based on intensive survey of relevant literature which reviews the present status, threats, conservation initiatives and major legislation related to conservation of forest ecosystems and plant diversity. The three natural forests (Hill, Sal and mangrove forest) are the key habitats of plant diversity and cover about 2 million hectares of land. Despite a flora diversity rich country, the existence of many plant species is currently under threat as evident by continuous degradation of natural forest in Bangladesh. There is an increasing pressure on the biodiversity of this country to meet the needs of the increasing population of Bangladesh. As a result, many plant species are gradually declining and are facing extinction. Over exploitation of natural ecosystems, land use changes, permanent infrastructures in natural ecosystems, illegal logging, natural disasters, climate change effects and limited forest protected areas (FPAs) are key threats to plant diversity. Government has made some initiative to conserve the remaining plant diversity including declaration of FPAs, national conservation strategies and establishment of environment related acts. At present 47 FPAs are established as in-situ and ex-situ conservation approaches to preserve plant diversity. Several preservation plots, clone banks and arboreta are also functioning as conservation approaches. The country has several laws that address forest and biodiversity conservation, several of which has been amended in last decade. Recently the country has taken some policies and projects in small scale to ensure effective conservation of plant diversity through sustainable management practices. Although co-management by FPAs authority and local participant has some advantageous effects, the existing conservation practices are still poor to effective conservation of flora diversity.

Floristic Composition and Vegetation Diversity Status of Khagrachari Sadar, Chattogram, Bangladesh

“…From Khagrachari Sadar, this research lead to the existence of 369 vascular plant species corresponding to 144 genera and 97 families, which was concordant with prior studies conducted in Bangladesh's forest areas (Tutul et al, 2010;Uddin et al, 2017;Chowdhury et al, 2018;Hossen & Hossain, 2018;Rahman, 2018;Hossain et al, 2020). The plant information from the study region are arranged alphabetically by Family then by species names along with the Importance Value Index (IVI), habit, conservation status and accession number of the individual species (Table II).…”

Plant Community Structure and Biodiversity Patterns In Chattogram Metropolitan City of Bangladesh

“…This study has explored the occurrence of 645 vascular plant species belonging to 414 genera under 120 families from Chattogram Metropolitan area which was consistence with other study at different forest area in Bangladesh (Heinig, 1925;Rahman and Uddin, 1997;Dey et al,1999;Tutul et al, 2010;Uddin et al, 2017;Rashid et al, 2018;Chowdhury et al, 2019;Hossain et al, 2020;Rudra et al, 2021) and higher than the other study of different metropolitan area and other side in Bangladesh (Akber et al, 2011;Rahman, 2013;Uddin et al, 2015;Dutta et al, 2015;Rahman et al, 2016;Jaman et al, 2017;Islam et al, 2021). The documented plants species from the study area are summarized in Table 2 along with family, scientific name, local name, habit, medicinal/non-medicinal, the Importance Value Index (IVI), accession number with conservation status.…”

Conservation status of Tanacetum baltistanicum medicinal endemic plant species of Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan

“…Pakistan has vast floral biodiversity containing about 6000 taxa and a large variety of species due to the country's diverse topographic, geographic, and climatic conditions (Breckle, & Rafiqpoor, 2020;Hossain, et al, 2020). There are 128 pteridophytes, 23 gymnosperms, 1140 monocots, 576 types of grass, and 4492 taxa dicots.…”