Impact of the local community on the degradation of Sundarbans: analysis of the Shyamnagar region of Bangladesh

This study seeks to explore the impacts of local community on land degradation in Sundabarns based on a case in Shyamnagar in Bangladesh. Shymanagar is a mangrove forest area, hence, the research aimed to explain the human activities that causes the decline in the mangrove forest cover. To complete the study, an online and printed questionnaire-aided surveys were sent to a sampled population of 24 respondents. The study confirmed that human activities contribute significantly to the destruction of the mangrove forests; hence they are significant agents of land degradation in Shyamnagar. Eighty percent of the respondents earn their living from fishing, lumbering, and farming; all of which exposes the Sundarbans to reasonable threat of degradation and extinction of the mangrove forest. The results also confirmed there is significant increase in human encroachment in the forest areas, which contributed to forest depletion. Furthermore, most residents of the Shyamnagar are not aware of the importance of the mangrove forest cover and the need to preserve them. The research concluded that national and local authorities should partner with the members of the society to implement conservation measures for the forest cover. These findings and conclusion could be influenced by possible biasness from the respondents with economic conflicting interests in the land