INTEGRATED PROTECTED AREA CO-MANAGEMENT (IPAC) - BIDS

Chapter 4:
Mapping for Core Steps and Actors in Value Chains
This chapter discusses the steps and processes that occur from harvests to final consumption of
SRF products. As the present study identifies the marketing chains up to final destination, it
excludes processes involved in converting into final products through processing activities (e.g.,
fish drying, etc). In other words, the study aims to map marketing chains only. However, from
different perspectives, the study investigates a few processing activities centered around SRF
products, such as saw milling and furniture making enterprises.
4.1 Sectors and Products under Study
As also described in Chapter 1, the SRF products are broadly divided into five major categories:
timber, non-timber, fish, aquatic and non-aquatic resources. The timber category consists of
sundri and other trees, followed by non-timber consisting of goran, golpata, grass and hantal,
fish consisting of gura fish, sada (large) fish, hilsha and shrimp, aquatic resources consisting of
crab and mollusc, and non-aquatic resources consisting of honey (Table 4.1). However, for not
all the items investigations have been carried out in details. Of these, for various reasons, the
products such as sundri or goran (banned items), grass, hantal, shutki and mollusc (small sample
size) have not been covered for detail level analysis in this report 62 . Golpata is one of the SRF
products which needs special attention as this is so called “CI sheet of the mass population who
are poor for house roofing”. This is getting far more important due to the ever-increasing pricing
pressures from CI sheets in the existing market.
As mentioned earlier, not all the products listed above will be within the scope of this brief
study. For example, the products under “Other Products” will not be included in the current
VCA. However, the type of associated actors and flow chains of the above product list are
contemplated. In the case of multi-products dealing with by single actor, the dominant product
is considered.
As discussed in the methodology chapter (Chapter 1), the marketing chains for the SRF products
are complex, multi-dimensional involving innumerable combinations. Only the basic, common
and dominant chains for the selected SRF items have been identified for subsequent
investigations.
62 There has been a ban on Sundri for a long time; goran is also banned since cyclone Sidr. One sample of sundri
(illegal) and 6 samples of goran (legal but as by product) have been included in this study to identify marketing
chains and other aspects of extraction other than detailed costs and returns. Marketing chains for these items have
been identified but these are more or less similar to other SRF items: Collector ⇒ Choto Mahajan ⇒ Boro
Mahajan/ Bahaddar (for fish or shutki) ⇒ Aratdar ⇒ Wholesaler ⇒ Retailer.
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