STOLEN FORESTS is a book of images and critical text about the state of the forests of Bangladesh. Author Philip Gain has been through the forests in hills, coast and plains at different times for about two decades. This book reflects his predilection for images of forests; and to him forests are not just trees and the wildlife they support but also the communities that live in the forests, their knowledge, education, history, traditions, technology, culture and lots more.

The author from the water world of Gopalgonj made his first trip to a forest in 1980 that was the Modhupur sal forest. There was no bear or tiger left in Modhupur when he stepped into the forest. Still it was a fascinating experience for him to roam around with friends, sticks in hands. Flocks of monkeys and long-tailed hanumans (langur) that still survived with the towering sal thrilled them.

What attracted the young mind of the author most was the matrilineal Garo or Mandis of the forest villages. He found them to be very special people compared to the majority community of Bangladesh. The Mandis of Modhupur are truly forest people. The hospitality that he was offered by the Mandis was unforgettable.

This thrill of a young man remained dormant for a decade and then sprung again in the late eighties of the last decade. His frequent visits to the Modhupur forest, and happy moments with the Mandis eventually led him to other forests and to know so many wonderful people from diverse forest communities. The Author’s visits throughout the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have been saddening in most instances; however, he has not missed the riches in nature and the ethnic communities in this once mega-diversity region. Like in Modhupur what he enjoyed most in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is the time with the forest communities such as Mru, Khyang, Chakma, Tripura, Marma, Chak, and Bawm. Meals served in their bamboo houses in the truly forest villages in the mountains have always come as a surprise to him.
His journey through a few Khasi villages in the Northeast of Bangladesh has always been refreshing. Although most of the forests in the Northeastern region have vanished, a traditional Khasi village, surrounded by betel leaf cultivation, demonstrates a culture deeply tangled with the forest.

As the author has frequented Modhupur and other forests and spent wonderful times with diverse forest people of different times and ages, he realizes why and how peoples, indigenous to the forests, are part of them. That the Khasis in Sylhet, Mandis in Modhupur, and jumias in the CHT are really intertwined with the native forests is manifested in their cultures.

It is a matter of great regret that the forest and its children are placed in horrible circumstances today. The author has witnessed how the Modhupur sal forest has been stripped of its traditions. Decay of forests is not unique in Bangladesh. But the introduction of plantations—monoculture of teak, rubber, eucalyptus and acacia—has horrendous consequences on these native forests. In Modhupur, invasive species have made their way into the forestland under the guise of 'social forestry' that is plantation in essence. Here 'social forestry' that was initiated in 1989-'90 was preceded by rubber monoculture that destroyed a significant part of the sal forest. The so-called 'social forestry' funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has caused immense ruin to the sal forest, not only in Modhupur, but also in other sal forest patches up to the northern tip of Bangladesh as well.
The promotion of plantation economy is indeed at the core of the destruction of the unique forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Chittagong, and the Cox's Bazar belt. It was in this region that the first plantation of exotic or invasive species took place in 1872. However, except for the Sundarbans, monoculture plantations have rapidly expanded in recent times in all forest regions of Bangladesh. This has happened in the setting of rapid expansion of 'simple plantation forestry' around the globe. This is a serious concern because plantation forestry has been the foremost factor for the destruction of native forests. We have very disturbing statistics here—the country's official 18 per cent public forestland has shrunk to approximately six per cent that includes the mangrove forests and the plantation of more than 400,000 ha, raised since 1872.

The author is convinced out of his practical experience that the plantations are not forests at all. In Bangladesh monoculture plantations of teak, rubber, eucalyptus, acacia, pine and other exotics that we see on the public forestland are mainly 'simple plantation forestry' that requires clear felling of native forests at the time of its establishment. Clear felling at harvest time is also a basic feature of simple plantation. This leads to catastrophic effects on the environment in public forests as we see in the case of Bangladesh. With the loss of the forests the forest-dwelling communities lose their commons.

In many countries including Bangladesh 'degraded' 'denuded' and 'less productive' forestlands are targeted for plantations. However, what is often branded as 'less productive' or 'degraded' is actually native forest that has immense social, cultural, traditional, educational, medicinal and environmental values. In Bangladesh while the plantation projects are implemented by the government, they are financed mostly by the international financial institutions (IFIs)-Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank. The promotion of plantation economy, officially-sanctioned logging, reservation, settlement of Bengalis in the CHT, etc. are some of the major factors that underlie the destruction of the forests and the misery of the forest-dwelling ethnic communities.

Philip Gain has been through the forests in different regions and come across communities primarily for his research into human rights abuses and environmental hazards. At the same time he has made images out of his passion and attraction to the beauty and suffering of Nature and people. Over the past one and half decades he has learned how wrongfully the ill-fated forest-dwelling communities and their practices are frequently blamed for the ruin of the forests. In this book he has put together images of the beauty of our forest together with beautiful faces that we see in the forest and those of the underlying factors for destruction that are veiled by the authorities.

The Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), the organization he has been working with since it was founded in 1993, has given him an outstanding opportunity to study the fate of our forests and the ethnic communities who are an integral part thereof. He has not studied the forests with scientific knowledge or even with adequate training in photography. But his love for the subject has given him confidence. The selection of images in this book is the best expression of his gratitude to Nature and its children.

Authored by Philip Gain
Published by Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD)
Published 2007
216 pages in art paper Price: Tk.1500 US$25