5. Conclusion
In the process of evaluating the impact of Rohingya influx to forest
ecosystem function in Cox’s Bazar– Teknaf peninsula, this study
considered multiple factors to showcase present and future land
use/cover change as well as loss of ecosystem function in an
ecologically sensitive area. Multitemporal Sentinel imagery and
collateral data were employed to quantify changes in forest cover and
predict their distribution by incorporating important dynamic variables
into the model. The results showed that forest cover degraded
substantially to accommodate a large number of refugees that led to
deterioration of forest ecosystem functions. Significant amount of above
ground biomass loss and release of tons of carbons to the atmosphere in
response to refugee rehabilitation were noteworthy. Importantly, this
study quantified that 27,600 tons of carbon may have released to the
atmosphere between 2017 and 2019 because of widespread deforestation.
Further, modelling exercise indicated that the extent of forested lands
and associated ecosystem functions could degrade substantially than
might have anticipated at present. Consequently, wildlife habitat
associated with forest degradation and fragmentation could endanger a
number of flora and fauna, including the Asian elephant.
Despite this study has many implications (e.g. conservation of forest,
policies), lack of cloud free satellite data was a major constraint to
depict forest cover changes over different seasons. Hence, future work
could use microwave data during the monsoon season and determine how
regeneration of shrubs and mixed forest is occurring in the area. Taking
regeneration of trees and shrubs into account may be useful to predict
future changes of ecosystem functions. In addition, growth rate of
Rohingya population was not considered in this study, accounting their
growth rate could be of value to include in the dynamic model, used in
this work. Finally, use of secondary data to estimate AGB may have
under/over– estimated actual figures. Even though deriving
biomass data from the field is time and labor– intensive, an
ongoing work could provide better estimate related to biomass loss and
carbon release, as a result of forest clearance, caused by Rohingya
refugees. Despite these limitations, this work can be highly useful to
determine the impact of refugee crisis on the environment with
geospatial data in Bangladesh and elsewhere.