Smallholder Tree Growing in South and Southeast Asia - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 26

European companies, until the end of the 19th century. In 1896, the Royal Forest
Department was established and tasked with the institution of central authority
over regional nobilities (Pragtong and Thomas 1990 in Lakanavichian 2001). The
department was further charged with the regulation and control of forest logging,
initially operating under absolute monarchy, and from 1932 onwards, under constitu-
tional monarchy. In 1989, a total ban on commercial timber harvesting was declared
to stop the rapid deforestation, and major changes in Thai forest policy started (Salam
et al. 2006). In 1990, a Community Forest Act was drafted followed by the enactment
of a Forest Plantation Act in 1992. Although intentions were there to involve com-
munities in forest plantation and management, the Royal Thai Government rather
believed in large-scale private plantations as a way of mitigating deforestation, reviv-
ing the forestry sector and supplying wood for domestic consumption (TFSMP5 1993
in Lakanavichian 2001). However, due to the increasing resentment among local
communities and NGO's, the promotion of commercial large-scale monocultures of
fast-growing trees was halted in 1992. Efforts were subsequently directed at the pro-
motion of small-scale tree farms. Thomas et al. (2007) refer to three main strategies
that have been used to promote tree growing in midland and highland areas, i.e., sim-
ple agroforestry primarily centered on the planting of fruit trees (temperate fruits like
pears, plums, litchee, and Chinese apricots and subtropical fruits like mango and lon-
gan) on agricultural fields (e.g., Withrow-Robinson et al. 1998), complex agroforestry
in the form of extension or improvement of the jungle tea plantations in the hill ever-
green forest (with integration of fruit trees in some areas) and the community-
managed forest directed at the maintenance and expansion of permanent forest
protected and managed by local communities. However, the results of these efforts
are still limited. Farmers face multiple constraints when establishing tree plantations,
including no or few incentives, long waiting periods prior to tree sales, lack of legal
support for community forest management, lack of legalization for tree felling and
selling, lack of specific tree growing technologies and absence of government sup-
port, through the Royal Forest Department, in developing marketing channels for
small farmers in plantation and wood-product business (Lakanavichian 2001; Salam
et al. 2006). Community Forest Management has been debated for quite some time
with a number of alternative drafts of proposed community forest legislation prepared
separately by the Royal Forest Department (RFD), i.e., the 'ministry version', and the
alliance of academics and NGOs, commonly referred to as the 'people's version',
since the 1990s (Salam et al. 2006). It is only recently (on the 21st of November
2007) that the Community Forest Bill was passed in the National Legislative
Assembly (see Hares, Chapter 19, this volume).
Bangladesh
The forests of Bangladesh have been under planned management for over a hundred
years, with the first forests being notified as reserved forests after the Forest Act VII of
1865. The Forest Act of 1927 grants the government several basic powers, largely for