Lecture- 12: Disaster Management

1. Lecture- 12: Disaster Management Coping Mechanisms during Contingency & Emergency Situations: Contribution of Homestead Forests to the Rural Bangladeshi People Presented byAbul Kalam AzadSenior Lecturer, GEDNorthern University BangladeshE-mail: kalamadd@gmail.com

2. Introduction “Under the green wood tree Who loves to lie with me Come hither, come hither, come hither.” [Shakespeare] Forests have been, for ages, the part and parcel for our living, livelihood and culture. Poems have been written on forests, music has been composed to sing the beauty of forests, and people have lived in forests (MahfuzUllah & AinunNishat, Natural Disasters, Forest and Environmental Security, http://www.iucn.org/themes/fcp/activities/publications/amman_flood.doc). In a word, forests have always saved people from the furry of nature. Let’s discuss how homestead forests work as coping mechanisms to the rural BD people during the emergency and contingency situations..

3. Conceptual Analyses Emergency Situation The term ‘emergency’ refers to that natural or manmade event disrupts the environment of care or increases demands for services. Khondoker Mokaddem Hossain says: “The term ‘emergency’ refers to unforeseen sudden and dangerous occurrences which demand immediate action.” [The Contribution of Homestead Forests to the Rural Bangladeshi People during Disaster: A Sociological Study, 2000: 372] FAO (2002) defined emergency situations as~

4. “an extraordinary situation in which people are unable to meet their basic survival needs, or there are serious and immediate threats to human life and well being.” Contingency Situation K. Mokaddem Hossain (1997) says: “The term ‘contingency’ refers to incidental conditions or events that can be anticipated, if not always predicted, in a given society.” FAO (2002) defined contingency situation as “a situation that cannot be handled within the scope of the normal automated procedures of TARGET.”

5. To distinguish between emergency and contingency situations, it may be said that emergency needs arise on the basis of natural disasters and manmade disasters whereas contingency needs arise on the basis of expenditures or incidental needs (see the table below).

7. Homestead Forests Homestead forests are common features in rural Bangladesh. K.M. Hossain says: “Multi-purpose plants, herbs including fruit and timber trees, and bamboo, which are grown on small plots of private rural land, usually around people’s homes, are found all over the country are referred as homestead forests.” [Ibid, P- 109] Motiur Rahman et. el. (2006) quoted Douglas definition of homestead forests as “a multistoried vegetation of shrubs, bamboos, palms, and trees

8. surrounding homesteads that produce materials for a multitude of purposes, including fuel, shelter, structural materials, fruits and other foods, fodder, resins, and medicines .” The area of homestead forest in Bangladesh is 0.27 million hectares, representing 10.5% of forestlands (Government of Bangladesh 1993). Although relatively small in area, homestead forests supply 70% of timber and 90% of fuel wood and bamboo (Singh 2000).

9. Resin is a thick sticky substance that is produced by some trees and that becomes yellow and hard after it is collected, or any of various similar substances produced chemically for use in industry

10. Homestead Forests as Coping Mechanisms during Emergency Situation History says, since 16th century all Indian subcontinent is prone to frequent natural disasters & calamities such as flood, cyclone, drought, earthquake etc. as evident from the table below. Table: Percentage Distribution of Survey Households Suffering from Disasters Since 1973

11. [Source: The contribution of Homestead Forests to the Rural Bangladeshi People During Disaster: A Sociological Study ] Under the above circumstances, rural poor peoples are to depend on homestead forests. For example, this time they, in order to cope with new disastrous family and meet up their financial or subsistence needs, sold homestead forests. Some take fruit- trees adjacent to their houses as merely food. In addition, homestead forests they take as their protector during cyclones, hurricanes, tornado etc. So, homestead forests become more significant during the emergency situations, no doubt.

12. Manmade Disasters Manmade disasters include events such as the theft of Livestock, Tools or Jewelry, The death of livestock, Fire damage, Civil unrest & war etc. In these emergency situations, the contributions of homestead forests are really mentionable (see the table below).

13. Table: Percentage Distribution of Households Adopting Different Strategies during Disasters N= 120 [Ibid, p-385]

14. Homestead Forests as Coping Mechanisms during Contingency Situation 1. Wedding Expenditure In rural Bangladesh, dowry has become a tradition in both Hindus and Muslims. In order to meet up such costs, they are to sell their homestead forests as evident from the following statistics:

15. Fig: Wedding Expenses from Homestead Forests [Hossain K.M., Ibid, 1997: 90]

16. 2. House Building & Repairing K. M. Hossain showed in his study that about 90 % of the survey households used homestead trees and bamboo for building and repairing house. 3. Food & Other Essentials The survey indicates that 52.7 % of the poor and 30.7 % of the middle households are assisted by homestead forests in regard of their needs of basic food such as rice, flour (powder used for making bread), fruit, oil, vegetables, salt, cooking ingredients, kitchen tools & soap.

17. 4. Agricultural Inputs Many rural poor perceive different kinds of inputs such as the improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation facilities and so on. They also need ploughs, spades, axes, ladders and other agricultural equipment for cultivation of land. In order to meet up such needs, homestead forests are very useful for rural Bangladeshi people. As K.M. Hossain showed in his study that~ “80.7 percent of the middle farm households, 70 percent of the rich and 37.8 percent of poor households were supported by homestead forests.”

18. 5. Education Expenses Although primary education is free, with no tuition fees, one still needs money for buying cloths, books, and other necessities. For secondary, most students have to pay tuition fee, examination fee and hostel costs. K.M. Hossain showed in his study that 38 percent of the middle income households, 30 percent rich and only 12 percent of poor households derived funds from homestead forests.

19. 6. Clothing Clothing is one of the most important needs of all human beings. But most of the rural poor in Bangladesh are to meet up this need through homestead forests. 7. Sickness & Treatment There are many forms of sickness suffered by rural people in Bangladesh such as cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis (which can attack many parts of a person's body, especially their lungs), leprosy, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles (small red spots all over the body), rabies, venereal diseases (caused by sexual

20. activity with another person) and parasitic diseases, ulcers, tumors, heart disease, kidney problems, cancer etc. In these contingency situations, homestead forests are very useful for Bangladeshi people. 8. Credit Repayment For the patron-client relationship, many poor peoples are indebted to the patrons or rich people. To be repaid, poor peoples, very often, sell their homestead trees or forests.

21. 9. Civil/ Criminal Cases Disputes involving land, stealing and robbery lead to court cases which require rural poor peoples are to sell their homestead forests or bamboos. 10. Land Purchase & lease Rural poor peoples do have less cash money. To purchase or to lease lands, so, they are to depend on homestead forests. 11. Miscellaneous Expenditures In addition, there are many other

22. contingency expenditures what rural poor meet up depending on the homestead forests. These are~ • Digging & re-digging of ponds for fish cultivation; • Development of land for irrigation purposes; • Investment in petty business; • Payment of bribe to secure a job; • Buying & commissioning of shallow tube-wells for drinking water; • Payment of registration fees for land; • Meeting family expenditures in mishaps of earning members.

23. Now, we can show the percentages of rich, middle and poor households in meeting the contingency needs through homestead forests as K.M. Hossain showed in his study:

24. [Source: Ibid, 1997: 107]

25. Conclusion Finally, it may be said that forests are the most important coping mechanisms specially during the emergency and contingency situations. During flood, cyclone or some other emergency situations man take them as food.