Hararganj Reserved Forest Conservation and Protected Area Designation Project

The project (November 2026 – May 2029) is a conservation initiative led by the Arannayk Foundation in partnership with the Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD) and funded by the Rainforest Trust (USA). The project seeks to evaluate the feasibility of formally designating of the Hararganj (Atora) Reserved Forest as a Protected Area, subject to multi-stakeholder consent. 

Spanning 79 square kilometers of semi-evergreen hill forest along Bangladesh’s northeastern transboundary border with India, the Hararganj Reserved Forest is a critical conservation zone within the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. It serves as the primary regional stronghold for the Endangered Western Hoolock Gibbon, supporting an estimated 1,104 individuals, which represents 0.5% of the global population and 12.5% of Bangladesh’s national population, alongside globally threatened species such as the Endangered Phayre’s Leaf-monkey, the Endangered Bengal Slow Loris, the Vulnerable Asiatic Black Bear, the Critically Endangered Chinese Pangolin, and the endemic plant Alocasia hararganjensis. However, this high-canopy habitat faces rapid fragmentation due to agricultural encroachment, the expansion of commercial betel leaf cultivation, open-access firewood extraction by surrounding tea estate laborers, and transboundary poaching, pushing isolated primate groups toward the brink of localized extinction.

To establish a rigorous empirical foundation for conservation planning, multi-disciplinary teams will conduct intensive floral and faunal baseline assessments using camera traps, complemented by a socio-economic dependency survey of forest-adjacent households, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), and transect walks. Building on these scientific baselines and using GIS tools, clear core and buffer boundaries across the proposed sanctuary will be delineated. Throughout the zoning process, the project will execute comprehensive Free, Prior, and Informed Consent consultations across three indigenous Khasi punjis. Customary land tenure, traditional settlements, and existing sustainable NWFP harvesting will be safeguarded by either excluding them from the strict core boundaries or legally designating them as co-managed buffer zones, while on-ground demarcation will be done by zonation signboards. Following participatory boundary design, the project will facilitate multistakeholder validation workshops and field verification visits from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the BFD to secure the official Government Gazette notification and update the World Database on Protected Areas.

To operationalize sustainable governance, Arannayk Foundation will formulate a 10-year Protected Area Management Plan alongside a comprehensive Hararganj Biodiversity Book, and train 60 participants, including frontline BFD staff, indigenous leaders, women, and youth. Simultaneously, the initiative will reduce pressure on core forest resources by piloting sustainable forest-based and non-forest-based alternative livelihoods for forest dependent communities, including apiculture, under-canopy spice cultivation (wild ginger, turmeric, and cardamom), buffer-zone non-wood forest product plantations, homestead orchards, and livestock rearing.

Nationally, gazetting this reserve directly assists Bangladesh in minimizing its terrestrial Protected Area gap, advancing the country from 3.2% toward its 4% target under the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) and globally, the initiative drives meaningful progress toward the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework "30x30" mandate (Target 3).

The project contributes to SDG :