Shifting paradigm of governance in the natural resource management sector of Bangladesh : centralist to pluralistic approach in forest protected areas management

Good governance in natural resource management (NRM) is one of the growing concerns in most developing countries that often inappropriately embedded in national policies and political agendas. It is, in fact, even more important for countries like Bangladesh with exceptionally high pressure and dependence on its natural resources for sustaining rural livelihoods. Globally, nowadays, good governance is considered as one of the key factor for achieving the goal of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Bangladesh, of late has responded to that global zeal by involving local communities in the management of country's declining forest and other natural resources especially in the protected areas. The colonial legacy of the forestry sector of Bangladesh was planned and, managed as interim projects through donors' prescriptions. Thus, institutions, management processes and conservation outcomes were problematic. The conventional approach adopted by colonial and post-colonial regimes for forest management proved to be also inefficient due to its top-down management system. The absolute donor dependency and their prescription sometimes worsened the situation both ecologically and socially. Global, regional and local trends supported the need for a different dimension in the governance paradigms. The introduction of a pluralistic approach, known as co-management in protected areas (PAs) is an example of such an attempt whereby shared governance mechanisms are implemented to attain the desired goals of conservation that will also address the livelihoods and aspirations of communities living in and around PAs. However, in designing future forest and PA regimes the concern of the external aid support and attached conditions remain a reality that needs to be addressed. Serious attention must be given to vanishing biodiversity, culture and community livelihoods through devising an appropriate governance mechanisms recognizing and supporting local rights, access and participation in the environmental management. It is now time to mainstream the adhoc nature of governance according to our national conservation strategy and policy frameworks in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the Bangladesh NRM sector and the human and community right of people in the specific context of forest and PA management.