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Annual Report 2016 Arannayk Foundation

Introduction

The Arannayk Foundation (AF), also called the Bangladesh Tropical Forest Conservation

Foundation, was established in July 2003 by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and the

United States Government (USG) under the provisions of the U.S. Tropical Forest Conservation

Act (TFCA), 1998. The AF’s objective is to conserve Bangladesh’s rapidly disappearing tropical

forests and biodiversity. It is registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and not

having a share capital. The AF is managed by an independent Board of Directors composed of

representatives from the GOB, USG, and five representatives from non-governmental

organizations (NGOs). By its constitution (Article of Association), the USAID Mission Director in

Bangladesh is the USG representative, and the Joint Secretary (Development), Ministry of

Environment and Forest (MOEF) is the GOB Representative. The tenure of a board member is

three years, while the Chair of the Board, elected by its members, is renewed every 12 months.

The current Chair is Mr. Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmad, Country Representative, IUCN, who was elected

in January 2016.

Under the TFCA agreement, the USG is committed to provide $8.51 million to the AF over a

period of 18 years in diminishing quarterly installments commencing in 2000. To-date, the AF

has received approximately $8.39 million. As of December 2016, the AF has disbursed 155

grants, amounting to $10.58 million, from the TFCA fund. These grants were provided to NGOs,

research and academic institutions, the Bangladesh Forest Department, and community based

organizations to implement projects on important issues of forest and biodiversity conservation.

Aside from funding projects based on the TFCA grant, the AF itself has been implementing

forest and biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation related projects funded by

other donors (GIZ, ICIMOD, BCCRF) since 2012. In 2016 (and since 2013), a project funded by

the multi-donor Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) constituted the major

activity of the AF in terms of budget, geographical coverage and number of beneficiaries. The

project was jointly implemented by the Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD) and the AF with

technical and fiduciary support from the World Bank. In this project BFD was responsible for an

afforestation program involving 17,500 ha of coastal and hill afforestation and 2000 kilometer of

strip plantation and the AF was responsible for alternative livelihood development of 6,000 poor,

climate vulnerable and highly forest dependent households in nine coastal districts. During this

year, the AF disbursed TFCA grants to 14 organizations under 12 projects, all of which were

continuing from earlier years.

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Biodiversity inventory in a community conserved forest in Chittagong Hill Tracts: During

2016, the AF made an in-depth study of floral and faunal biodiversity of the Doluchari Village

Common Forest (community conserved area) of Rangamati district in Chittagong Hill Tracts

(CHT). The size of the VCF is 68.7 ha where 65 tree species and more than 150 faunal species

were recorded. Some of the faunal species found in Doluchari VCF were new records in

Bangladesh. The AF has published the information in the form of a book.

Strengthening value chain development activities in CRPAR Project: The ‘value chain

approach’ to promoting economic development of rural communities involves facilitating

collaborative efforts of all the actors involved in the production, processing and marketing of

selected commodities in order to create favorable conditions for all the actors, with particular

emphasis on enhanced benefits of the primary producers. Being market-led, sustainability of the

income generating activities under value chain development approach is automatic and does

not rely on continued support from development projects. In 2015, Arannayk Foundation

introduced value chain approach in its BCCRF-funded CRPAR project (Livelihood component)

in a pilot scale in 27 villages, working on local poultry value chain. In each village, the AF

developed a local livestock service provider (LSP) through training and linkage development

with Department of Livestock Services and private companies manufacturing and marketing

feed, vaccines,feeding and drinking pots and other inputs and equipment that are needed for

improved method of backyard poultry rearing. Within six months, the LSPs started earning BDT

3,000 – 15,000 per month from vaccination service and input business. The production of eggs

and poultry birsdsin their clients’farms also increased significantly due to reduced mortality,

rapid growth and increased frequency of reproductive cycles. While there were only 810

registered participants of the alternative livelihood program of CRPAR Project in 27 villages,

more than 9,000 households of those villages started increasing their poultry production by

utilizing quality inputs and services from the trained LSPs. Impressed by such outcomes, the

World Bank suggested AF to extend the poultry value chain development program to all of the

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200 villages under the Livelihood program of the project. In 2016, the AF extended the poultry

value chain development program to150 villages in nine districts by developing another 106

LSPs through training and linkage building support. The AF established collaboration

agreements (MoU) with two veterinary universities (Chittagong and Patuakhali) and two reputed

private companies (Renata Pharmaceuticals and Nourish Feed Co. Ltd.) for capacity building

and input supply to the LSPs. By December 2016, more than 37,500 households of 150 villages

in nine districts got involved with the local poultry value chain development program and the

monthly income of the LSPs rose to BDT 5,000 – 22,000. During this year, similar value chain

development work on beef and dairy value chains have also been initiated in 27 villages and

pond fish value chain development program in 12 villages.

Providing ‘water and sanitation’ support to forest dependent communities: There is acute

shortage of safe drinking water in coastal and hilly areas. The problem is aggravated due to

climate change. Most of the poor people of these areas also do not have sanitary latrines.

Therefore, they frequently suffer from various waterborne diseases which prevent them from

coming out of poverty (as they lose work days, spend money for medical treatment, eat up

savings and get indebted). As such, the AF took an initiative to address the water and sanitation

issue in the alternative livelihood program of CRPAR project as well as in some of the TFCA

funded projects in Chittagong Hill Tracts. The AF installed 33 deep tube wells and 150 shallow

tube wells in 119 villages and distributed to 4,173 sanitary latrines among the beneficiaries of

the Livelihood program of CRPARP. It is to be noted that out of the 33 deep tube wells, 25 were

provided by Bangladesh Steel Re-rolling Mills Ltd. (BSRM) under their corporate social

responsibility (CSR) program. Such supports helped not only project beneficiaries but also other

households of the project areas. In CHT,the AF installed one surface water harvesting system in

a village of Rowangchari, Bandarban (VCF Conservation project) during the year. All the

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households of the village (Pladai Para) now have access to safe drinking water and water for

other domestic uses.

Bringing phased-out projects of AF under a long-term monitoring and networking

program: From January 2016, the AF has undertaken a new project to monitor organizational

dynamism and development activities of community based organizations in its phased out

projects. The project is being implemented by a reputed national NGO, Proshika which was

selected through AF’s competitive grant making procedure (CGMP). The grant amounts to BDT

7.7 million for a period of two years. Proshika has assessed the current status (organizational

dynamism, revolving fund, livelihood development and forest conservation activities,

collaboration with Forest Department, etc.) of the community based organizations of 14 phased

out projects of the AF and identified their further capacity building needs.

International recognition of an Arannayk Project: One of the projects of AF in Chittagong Hill

Tracts, implemented by a local NGO ‘Tahzingdong’, received the international ‘Globe Energy

Award (Earth Category)’ which was declared in COP-22 held in Marrakesh, Morocco in

November 2016. The award was given for bringing number of community conserved

forestsunder effective restoration and sustainable management program. The project has

created access to water for more than 150 households. This has become a model for CHT.

Arannayk Foundation projects received more CSR contribution from BSRM: In 2016, a

private company – Bangladesh Steel Rerolling Mills Ltd. (BSRM) – shared their CSR fund with

the CRPAR project of AF to install 25 deep tube wells in 25 salinity affected coastal villages.

Earlier, the BSRM also provided CSR support to two other projects of the AF. One of those was

a financial grant to the Union federations of forest dependent groups of Sitakund, Chittagong to

contribute to theirrevolving loan fund for alternative livelihood development of forest dependent

households and the other one was to the Shadanpur Union Federation of forest dependent

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groups in Banskhali, Chittagong to help them installa briquette factory for reducing local

demands for fuelwood.

Grant Disbursement in 2016

In 2016, Arannayk Foundation financed 15 projects implemented by 15 organizations as listed

below.

Project Title Implementing

Entity

Date of Commencement

Duration (Years)

Amount of grant (USD)

Amount disbursed in 2016 (USD)

TFCA Funded

1. Inani Protected Forest Area (PFA) Co-management - NGO component (Phase-4)

SHED Jul-14 3 299,983 86,771

2. Conservation of Threatened Species (Phase-2) IFESCU Jul-12 4 62,975 9,651

3. Restoration and Conservation of Biodiversity in the Denuded Hills in Banskhali, Chittagong - NGO component (Phase-3)

DAM Apr-15 2 98,202 34,522

4. Community-based Conservation of Forest Resources and Enhancing Rural Livelihood in Rangamati of CHT (Phase-3)

Hill Flower Apr-15 2 98,202 55,756

5. Restoration of Hilly Biodiversity through Community Based Bio-Resource Management at Dighinala, Khagrachari (Phase-3)

Anando Apr-15 2 98,202 48,741

6. Conservation and Regeneration of Biodiversity of Village Common Forest in Khagrachari (Phase-2)

Proshika Apr-15 2 98,202 29,877

7. Community Based Forest Resource Management for Sustainable Development in Rowangchari, Banderban (Phase-3)

Tah Zing Dong

Apr-15 2 98,202 26,761

8. Swamp Forest Restoration in Shunamganj (Phase-3) CNRS Apr-15 2 98,202 36,911

9. Promotional and awareness raising activities of AF BCL Oct-10 6 96,868 7,571

10. Capacity building, monitoring &backstopping support to AFprojects

AF Jan-16 1 71,377 71,377

11. Livelihood support for conservation of Gazalia Village Common Forest, Bandarban Hill Tracts

Toymu Jan-13 4 24,588 0

12. Livelihood support for Conservation of Dhanpata Village Common Forest, Khagrachari Hill Tracts

Kabidang Jan-13 4 24,588 0

13. Monitoring of forest conservation activities of community based organizations in phased out projects of AF

Proshika Jan-15 2 98,202 22,192

14. Livelihood Development of Forest-dependent Communities in and around Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (Phase-2)

SHED Jul-15 2 98,202 38,890

Donor Funded

15. Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project (Part-2: Alternative Livelihoods to Support Forest Communities) - BCCRF, World Bank

AF, YPSA, Uttaran and 55 Societies

Mar-13 4 5,000,000 2,816,875

Total 3,285,895

Impacts

Through 155 grants disbursed under 38 projects during 2006-2016, Arannayk Foundation has

made significant impact towards improving conservation of some of the important but

threatened biodiversity hotspots and endangered tree species of Bangladesh. Aside from the

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conservation impacts, the AF has made significant impacts on poverty reduction, empowerment

of women and indigenous communities, reduction of CO2 emission and improvement of

resilience of coastal communities.

Alternative livelihood development of forest dependent communities: By establishing

community-managed revolving loan funds (RLF), Arannayk Foundation has created access for

around 15,000 poor forest dependent households to soft loans for undertaking alternative

income generating activities.

As of December 2016, the RLF of 428 Community based Organizations (CBOs) of the Arannayk

beneficiaries totaled BDT 200 million (including BDT 160 million grants from the AF and BDT 40

million raised by the CBOs through participatory savings schemes and other service charges or

interests on loans). During 2009-2016, about 14,000 poor forest dependent people took loan

from the RLF. The borrowers invested the loans in various income generating activities such as

vegetable cultivation, leasing land for cultivation of rice and other crops, cow rearing, beef

fattening, poultry rearing, fish cultivation, handicrafts making, nursery business, buying rickshaw

van and varieties of small businesses. Through effective use of the RLF loans, the borrowers

have been able to improve their economic conditions and payback their loans on time. The rate

of repayment of RLF loans is over 95%. Due to the adoption of the AIGAs, the average annual

income of the Arannayk project beneficiaries increased by 96% in the projects on co-

management of protected areas and reserved forest, 47% in the projects in CHT and 125% in

the project on swamp forest in 5-6 years and 51% in CRPARP in just three years. Some

beneficiaries who had started with one AIGA such as vegetable cultivation, poultry rearing, goat

rearing or a grocery shop, have now diversified their income generating activities by adopting

other AIGAs too. Collection of forest resources from public forests by the Arannayk project

beneficiaries reduced drastically due their increased income from AIGAs.

Institutional development of community based conservation organizations: Through the

support of the AF, around 15,000 poor forest dependent households are now organized as self-

help groups at their respective villages and, in most of the places, the village-level groups have

formed their federations at the Union level. Altogether there are 428 village-level groups and 80

Union federations. About 60 of the Union federations have got registration from the Department

of Cooperatives and the remaining ones are also in the process of getting registered. Arannayk

Foundation also has established Co-management Councils and Co-management Committees

(CMC) in five reserved forests, three of which are now national parks (protected areas). Twenty-

five of such AF-supported community based organizations (village-level group, Union

Federation, CMC) have constructed their permanent office buildings (with support from the AF),

which are also treated as multi-purpose community houses. Aside from meetings and other

activities of the CBOs, these multi-purpose community houses are also used for various social

events and development activities such as holding medical and vaccination camps, non-formal

primary education and training programs and various social events. These houses are also

used as shelters during disasters and as temporary lodging house for school students coming

from the villages for public examinations.

Adoption of improved cooking stoves by rural households: To reduce the fuel wood needs

of its project beneficiaries, the AF promotes Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) among them. By

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2016, AF helped 10,600 forest dependent households to adopt ICS. The use of ICS reduces

household fuel wood requirement by about 50%. As a rural household in Bangladesh consumes

90 kg fuel wood per month on average (according to a published research paper), the ICSs

adopted by the beneficiaries of Arannayk projects save 5724 tons of fuel wood and thus 10,493

tons of CO2 emission per year. The improved cook stoves also helped women in two more

ways: (a) they could spend more time for alternative income generating activities as they did not

to go for collecting fuel wood and (b) they got relief from respiratory diseases that they used to

suffer from due to the smokes created by traditional cook stoves inside the kitchen.

Improvement of homestead agroforestry in forest dependent households: Arannayk’s

motivational campaign, training and input support enabled most of its project participants to

plant diverse species of fruit trees, timber and fuel wood yielding trees, vegetables and

medicinal plants in available spaces of their homesteads in all of its project areas. At least 1.5

million trees have been planted by around 15,000 households in the last 10 years.

The homestead agroforestry improvement activities have resulted in increased diversity of crops

(vegetables) and trees species in the homesteads of AF’s project beneficiaries and thus

increased their year-round production and consumption of diversified vegetables and fruits,

cash income from selling of surplus production and resilience to natural shocks. A recent survey

in AF’s CRPAR project areas revealed that while the project participants were growing only 2-3

summer vegetables and 1-2 winter vegetables at the beginning of the project, they grew 8-9

summer vegetables and 3-4 types of winter vegetables in 2016. Similarly the number of species

of fruits trees in their homesteads increased from 2-3 to 6-7 and that of timber trees from 1-2 to

3-4.

Restoration of tree cover in deforested and degraded forest areas: During 2009-2013,

Arannayk Foundation helped Bangladesh Forest Department to restore the forest cover in the

denuded and degraded areas of three protected areas and two reserve forests. Similarly, it

helped local communities of CHT and swamp forest areas to restore forest cover in the denuded

and degraded areas of 18 village common forests, 11 places (villages) of USF lands and 5

swamp forests during 2009-2016. Altogether around 4.5 million trees of local species have been

planted over in the degraded areas of the above forests that cover 27,784 hectares of forest

land in total.

In a recent study at a project area in Khagrachari district of Chittagong Hill Tracts involving

participatory reforestation of denuded hills through agroforestry approach, it was found that

each households earned more than BDT 10,000 from mango and litchi while BDT 30,000 –

50,000 from bamboo5-6 years after they were planted. The production is increasing over time.

In community conserved areas, bamboo is harvested and distributed to the communities for

their domestic uses. Based on the requirements bamboo is distributed and the surplus is sold in

the market. It may be mentioned that bamboo must be harvested from the clump once the culm

reaches three years. If bamboo culm is not harvested after three years, it will naturally die.

Improved protection of public forests: In Bangladesh, protection of public forests in is a big

challenge for the Forest Department. The AF jointly with Forest Department established

community patrol groups involving beneficiaries of AF projects for protection of plantations and

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natural forests. This is done mostly in areas where Forest Department is unable to protect due

to their resource limitations (manpower and accessibility). So far, the AF has established 50

CPGs usually with 21 members in each group. The CPG members accompany Beat Officer of

Forest Department to protect forests. Every day three members accompany with the Beat

Officer. In addition, if there is any illegal harvesting within the knowledge of the CPG, they

convey the message to the Beat Officer and accompany the Beat Officer to stop the illegal

harvesting. During 2016, 20 CPG members were injured in one operation where the miscreants

were trying to encroach forest land through establishing houses. Through joint actions, many

such illegal harvesting and encroachment could be stopped.

In order to sustain motivation and devotion of the CPG members, both AF and FD have taken

certain steps towards supporting livelihood of the CPG members. FD gives priority to those

people in selecting beneficiaries for social forestry programs while the AF provides them special

grants to develop group enterprises as sources of secured livelihood. Moreover, community

patrollers usually get priority in receiving loan from the RLF of the Community Based

Organizations.

Conservation of endangered native tree species of Bangladesh: By identifying the

remaining mother trees in forests and ex-situ conservation sites, developing propagation

protocols and establishing seed stands at Chittagong University campus, IFESCU has saved 63

endangered native tree species of Bangladesh forests from the threat of extinction. The IFESCU

also distributed seedlings of some those species to Forest Department, BFRI, some NGOs and

private-sector organizations for planting in degraded forests and other institutional and private

lands.

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Bringing village common forests under sustainable management: The Village Common

Forests (VCF) are natural forests that are maintained by indigenous communities around their

villages with the objective of maintaining tree cover and biodiversity to protect the environment

in the face of deforestation, to sustain supply of wood and bamboo required for house

construction of the community members, to ensure the source of water by keeping annual and

perennial springs and small rivers into sustained flow and to secure sustainable source of

essential livelihood resources such as fuel wood, wild vegetables and medicinal herbs. The

VCFs are managed, protected and utilized collectively by the indigenous communities under the

leadership of the head of the mouza (‘Headman’) or village (‘Karbari’) or by educational or

religious institutions or a committee formed by the community leaders, who govern the

management according to customary rules. Jhum cultivation and hunting are strictly prohibited

and all sorts of fireworks and unpermitted access are restricted in the VCFs. Harvesting of

bamboo is generally done in 2-3 years intervals. The VCFs are mostly small, averaging 20-120

hectares in size. Many of the VCFs are now lost due to encroachment, unsustainable use and

conversion to other land-uses and many of the existing ones are also either degraded or at risks

of being so due to increased population pressure, lack of proper management and lack of

security of tenure. Since 2009, the AF has supported a number of local NGOs to build

awareness and capacity of the concerned communities to conserve and sustainably manage

the VCFs. So far 18 VCFs, having a total area of 754 ha, have been brought under sustainable

management through awareness raising, human and institutional capacity building and

alternative livelihood development of the concerned communities along with enrichment planting

of native tree species in the degraded areas of the VCFs, planting of bamboos along stream

banks and regulated harvests of bamboo from the VCFs. As a result vegetation cover of the

VCFs and the flow of water from the VCFs in the dry season have increased significantly and

the socio-economic conditions of the indigenous communities have improved.

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Empowerment of women: Considering the importance of involvement of women for

sustainable livelihood development of rural households and also for conservation of forest

resources, Arannayk Foundation always emphasizes on active participation of women in its

community based forest conservation projects. More than 60% of the total project participants

of Arannayk projects are women. Aside from technical skill development and input support for

alternative income generating activities, Arannayk Foundation provides leadership and

organizational development and management (ODM) trainings to the women project

participants along with their male counterparts. It also makes sure that there is adequate

representation of women in the executive committees of the village-level groups and Union-level

federations of the project beneficiaries. Women representatives constitute 48% of the total

executive committee members of the community based organizations of forest dependent

people organized by the Arannayk projects. Thanks to the Arannayk capacity building support,

these women are now not only able to perform their decision making and management roles in

their group and federations but they have also strengthened their position in the society as well.

The capacity building interventions of the Arannayk Foundation have also developed

entrepreneurial capacities of the women which are evident from their ability to take, utilize and

repay RLF loans. Most of the RLF borrowers are women and the rate of repayment of the loans

by them is almost 100 per cent. The women generally invest their loans in such micro-

enterprises as grocery shop, small tea stall, cattle fattening, poultry rearing, vegetable

cultivation and handicrafts production. These women are now self-reliant and are making

significant contribution to the livelihood of their family. By reducing their dependence on

collection of forest resources, the AIGAs have been contributing to the conservation of the

forests too. Arannayk’s steps to promote improved cooking stoves (ICS) among its project

beneficiaries has not only reduced the consumption of fuel wood but also aiding in securing a

better health for women by reducing incidence of respiratory diseases amongst them by keeping

their kitchen smoke-free.

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Leveraging TFCA Resources

Arannayk Foundation strived to gain high leverage in utilizing TFCA resources for its projects by

mobilizing funds (co-financing) from other sources. More particularly, due to the depletion of

TFCA resources, Arannayk Foundation has been increasingly depending on funds mobilized

from other donors. The amount of fund that it received or generated from different sources in

2016 was USD 2,097,941. Only 6.35% of it came from the TFCA grant of the US Government,

while 74.97% came from BCCRF, 18.65% from investment income and 0.03% from another

source (Jolkona Foundation). In case of grant disbursement during the year which amounted to

a total of USD 3,285,895, about 82.34% was from BCCRF fund and only 17.66% from TFCA

grant.

Concluding Remarks

Arannayk Foundation has consistently maintained high level of management efficiency in grant

making and project management services by keeping its core expenses (staff salary, rents,

utilities, operation and maintenance of vehicles, etc.) as low as possible. In 2016, the total

spending of Arannayk Foundation amounted to USD 3,511,702, only 6% of which was spent for

its core expenses, while 94% was awarded as grants to different entities for implementation of

13 projects.In terms of effectiveness, the

Arannayk projectshave been very successful

in demonstrating effective ways to restoring

and conserving forest cover and biodiversity in

denuded and degraded forest lands under

different administrative and social

conditions.The role and contribution of the AF

is appreciated by all stakeholders including the

Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF),

Forest Department, Ministry of Chittagong Hill

Tracts Affairs (MOSCHTA), development

partners and forest dependent communities.

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But, the sustainability of the AF has remained uncertain as its primary fund flow – the TFCA

grant – is going to stop in 2018. Under this circumstance, an endowment is needed for the AF to

sustain its activities.