Building knowledge and increasing capacity for community-based bear conservation in Bangladesh

Sourav Chakma

Asiatic black bears and sun bears have received very little or no conservation focus in Bangladesh.  By dispersing seeds, bears aid in the regeneration of forests, critical to protecting watersheds for biodiversity and agricultural practices in agriculture-forest mosaic landscapes. The primary forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), at the western edge of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, have increasingly been undergoing substantial conversion into “working” agro-forest mosaics. Through this project, we aim to understand bear distribution, habitat use, occupancy, and activity in this landscape through the use of camera-trapping and sign surveys. We plan to analyze our data using multi-model occupancy inference frameworks, spatiotemporal activity overlap, and the creation of occupancy-based relative abundance estimates. We will recruit indigenous hunters to assist us with data collection, and become “conservation ambassadors.” We will conduct semi-structured interviews and apply participatory observation to investigate locals’ attitudes toward bear conservation, and better understand the associated factors of bear-human conflict. This project is led by a member of an indigenous community, and the knowledge gained from the above-mentioned activities will build a foundation for indigenous-led bear conservation efforts within an indigenous community - this is the first project of its kind so far in all of Bangladesh.

Watch the team's project video: