Teknaf peninsula rich with highly attractive eco-tourism attractions
_By Raquib Siddiqi
Cox's Bazar : Teknaf peninsula forms a continuous line of sandy beaches along the Bay of Bengal, 120 km long, reportedly the longest beach in the world. Almost virgin, the area is rich with highly attractive ecotourism sites.
This coastal border is backed by foothills, which are forested in patches. Wetlands line the Naf River, which forms the eastern boundary of the peninsula and the western border of Myanmar.
The peninsula is flanked by one barrier island, several kilometres north, Sonadia Island, and one sedimentary continental island 10 km south, St. Martin's. St.
Martin's is fringed by the only Coral Reef found in Bangladesh, one of the few coral-algal communities in the world.
The climate on the peninsula is moist; the rainy season falls during monsoon, between June and September. Cyclonic storms develop on the Bay of Bengal between April-May and October - November. Tempe-ratures average between 25-30 degrees centigrade year round. The tourism high season extends from December through March, the months of driest weather without severe storm threats.
Wildlife populations
Wildlife populations were once vibrant on the Teknaf, as described in the mid-1980s:
Good populations of elephant, capped langur, pigtailed, Assamese, and rhesus macaques, some Hoolock gibbons, slow loris, flying squirrel, Malayan giant squirrel, fruit pigeons, hornbills, pythons, and the rare Malayan box turtle.
Much of the habitat for these species has been eliminated. Elephants are the most important megafauna remaining, living in the wild in the central foothills. Because the elephant are considered to be endangered both within Asia and in Bangladesh, they are of high conservation importance.
Tigers, which once roamed wild on the Teknaf, are now extirpated in the area due to lack of habitat. Experts say tigers might repopulate the area via existing wild- life corridors if the region were re-forested with native flora and wildlife species.
A transitional ground for the fauna of the Indo-Himalayan and Indo-Malayan ecological subregions, the peninsula provides breeding areas for four globally-threatened species of marine turtles. Its inshore water hosts globally threatened marine mammals.
Because the area lies along international bird migration flyways, birds remain an important source of biodiversity, with 268 species found on the peninsula.
Protected areas
There are three protected areas and one Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) found on the Teknaf peninsula.
Himchari National Park, found just 5 kilometres south of Cox's Bazar, is a 1729-hectare reserve bordering the Bay of Bengal, with some remaining hillside semi-evergreen tropical forest. It serves as an excellent retreat for tourists seeking to enjoy scenic natural landscapes and a well-known waterfall. It is an easily reached destination for a picnic, walk or hike on a day trip from Cox's Bazar. Several sites in Himchari National Park have been concessioned for management by the private sector, including the waterfall. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit annually. It is managed by the Forest Department.
The Teknaf Game Reserve (TGR) is found along 24 km of hilly ridges between the Teknaf sea beach and the Naf River watershed. This 11,615-hectare reserve conserves the natural migration of the endangered Asian elephant. It is the third largest protected forest area in Bangladesh and harbors three ethnic minority communities, the Rakhain, Marma and Chakma.
The TGR includes evergreen and semi-evergreen hill forests, tidal mudflats, and mangrove. Much of the area has suffered severe deforestation, but nonetheless the reserve harbours important wildlife populations and could be successfully reforested over time. It is managed by the Forest Department. It is also the focus of ecotourism development work undertaken by the Nishorgo Project.
The proposed Inani National Park is located between the Himchari and Teknaf Game Reserve, covering an estimated 7000 hectares of tropical forest. The area has been proposed as a National Park, with an additional 3,000 hectares of surrounding Reserve Forest for community livelihood activities. The Inani area is rich in biodiversity and under extreme threat due to cyclonic damage, illegal logging, and fuel wood collection. The park and reserve forest would be managed by the Forest Department as a Protected Forest Area (PFA).
The Forest Department has proposed that the Arannayk Foundation, a debt for nature swap fund, support a project that would oversee the development of co-management and conservation activity in the Inani Range - via the creation of the new Inani Protected Forest Area. Included in the objectives will be alternative income generation for local stakeholders, the development of policies for improved management of the reserve, and the building or reinforcing of infrastructure that will enable better management and provision of visitor services at the site.
In addition to the protected areas, Bangladesh has declared Ecologically Critical Areas (ECAs), areas in which the ecosystem is considered to be critically threatened. In April 1999, the Department of Environment declared 40,000 hectares as ECAs, including Sonadia Island, St Martin's Island, and the western coastal zone of the Teknaf peninsula (10,465 ha in area).
An Ecotourism Management Plan is a pivotal step, necessary to create a virtuous environment for development, while assisting local stakeholders to confront the vicious cycle that is presently threatening the peninsula.
There is need for an ecotourism management planning process that will create a bioregional eco-tourism plan for the Himchari National Park, the proposed Inani National Park, the Teknaf Game Reserve, and Sonadia and St. Martin's Islands incorporating all relevant buffer zones. The plan would be market-based, locally led and created through the cooperation of government, the private sector, and local communities.
The challenges are not insignificant. In recent years, the market for nature tourism on the Teknaf peninsula has dropped, largely due to competition from St. Martin's Island package day trips. Hundreds of thousands of tourists are now flooding St.
Martin's with unmanagedtourism rapidly damaging its landscape and unique coral reef. Illegal land use practices on the peninsula are continuing to threaten the few natural assets remaining upon which ecotourism depends. And overdevelopment of Cox's Bazar is leading to the potential of damaging development along the entire Teknaf coastline.
The Teknaf Ecotourism Management Plan will foster landscape regeneration coupled with well managed tourism programmes in buffer zones. A market-savvy programme of innovative new ecotourism projects will attract the best and the brightest youths and entrepreneurs to assist, leverage responsible private sector investment, and develop a set of zoned areas for recreation alternatives according to environmental, social, and market criteria on public and private lands.
Communities in pivotal areas along the peninsula will take part in planning via their Community Conservation Groups and receive technical assistance to build market-based, well planned tourism to directly contribute to their livelihoods and crucially offset poor resource practices.
Zoning efforts will include Front-Country zones in Himchari National Park, adjacent to Cox's Bazar, with local communities enabled to meet the needs of domestic travelers interested in large group recreation. The Mid-Country zone at the Mochoni Entrance of the Teknaf Game Reserve was vetted for a cross-peninsula beach trek, elephant viewing areas, Naf River cruising and an ecolodge.
Recommendations for the Back-Country zone, the proposed Inani National Park and adjacent beach, combine low-impact recreation, landscape regeneration and protection of its unique world heritage boating culture.
These developments will attract new markets to Teknaf peninsula tourism-foreigners living in Bangladesh, youth groups, and international travellers looking for culture, adventure and volunteerism. And the Adaptive Ecotourism Management Planning process will be backed by a set of research based indicators, setting the stage for monitoring tourism impacts in future. The need is urgent on the Teknaf peninsula to replace a vicious cycle of negative development with a virtuous cycle. The proposed strategy to develop a Teknaf Ecotourism Management Plan would build a vision and develop the capacity to implement a more sustainable form of tourism while fostering market-based alternative income generating activities in local communities.
At present there is no active governmental provision for the environmental planning or management of tourism on the Teknaf peninsula. There should be master plan for development and tourism planning should transpire in a coordinated way without harming the environment.
A strategy for the Teknaf peninsula must look at pre-existing efforts to plan tourism in Bangladesh and the Teknaf region, its geography, existing development, ecological concerns, and existing land-use. The main administrative and management authorities in charge of development in the region will be outlined, as well as the planning protocols for ecotourism that are recommended as best practice on an international basis.
To determine the potential for new ecotourism development, the strategy reviews existing tourism planning and development efforts, markets for tourism, market niches, investment climate, and the type of tourism development activity that would be recommended based on market niche segmentation.
The strategy reviews the opportunity for segmented and zoned tourism activity in each region of the targeted areas. It assesses both community capacity and needs, and reviews the governmental capacity to manage visitors. A review of private sector activity in the region will be included, with a look at optimal private sector linkages.
