14 March 2012 Fig. 3. Water areas of the Feni-Noakhali coast. a large portion of total production, although tilapia, snakeheads, Clarias and Pangasius catfish, and small indigenous species are also cultured. Extensive and semi-intensive culture systems are used. Bangladesh is undergoing a gradual intensification of aquaculture but, while more sophisticated techniques are being employed, production per unit area is similar to that of many Asian countries (Salam 2000). Mangrove Forest There are 3,455 ha of mangrove forest in the FeniNoakahali coastal area. Most of the mangrove forest in the study area is in Noakhali Sadar zone and the least is in Companigonj zone (Fig. 4). A similar estimate of the extent of mangrove forest was made by Syed et al. (2001). Local people provided reasons for what is seen as a degraded mangrove forest. Sixty percent of respondents indicated that timber banditry was the responsible factor for mangrove destruction. Criminals form gangs and become timber bandits later. They either sold forest resources or burned them to damage the land. Afterwards, forest lands were sold and handed over to others. The cycle of transferring land from one owner to another was the main source of their income. This was identified as the most severe problem by most of the respondents of the study area. River erosion is a common phenomenon in coastal areas. Many people become landless because of river erosion. These people encroach on comparatively raised forest land with the help of bandits. During field visits, respondents identified the lack of guidelines as a cause of mangrove forest destruction. Local community respondents reported forest resources were destroyed because of the lack of proper action taken by law enforcement agencies from 1997 to 2000. The Forest Department filed cases to the court against forest offences, but these cases were not decided which encouraged further forest offences. Different stakeholders, such as rickshaw pullers and agricultural farmers, complain that corrupt forest officials and staff at the territory level were responsible for forest resource destruction. Fifty-eight percent responded that the fuel wood crisis was a serious problem causing mangrove destruction and 60 percent responded that they use mangrove as fuel wood. A similar observation was made by Sajjaduzzaman et al. (2005). Stakeholder perceptions of climate change Perceptions regarding climate change and effects on aquaculture, causes of forest encroachment, consequences, and suggestive measures were collected from five groups of respondents: land-owning aquaculture farmer, integrated agriculture-aquaculture farmer, landless aquaculture farmer, fisher, and other. Forty respondents from three zones were selected by stratified random sampling. Eight stations were selected randomly from each zone for a social survey to investigate the root causes of deforestation and encroachment of mangrove forest areas, aquaFig. 4. Spatial distribution of mangrove forests on the Feni- Noakhali coast.
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