Plea to safeguard parks and forests

The Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO) has prescribed certain ‘prohibitions’ and ‘limitations’ on development activities within a one-mile radius from the boundary of any National Reserve including National Parks.

“Let’s ensure that this status quo is strictly maintained,” urges wildlife biologist Dinal Samarasinghe, adding a passionate plea to safeguard Other State Forests (OSFs) which are also vital for the survival of wild animals.

He cites the study titled, ‘A biodiversity hotspot in turmoil: Doing away with circular 5/2001 could have catastrophic consequences for Sri Lanka’s forests’ published in April in the respected journal ‘Conservation Science and Practice’ of Wiley Periodicals.

The study was by EFL’s Dinal Samarasinghe, Eric D. Wikramanayake, Sevvandi Jayakody, Suranjan Fernando and Jagath Gunawardana and Alexander Braczkowski of the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia & School of Natural Resource Management, Nelson Mandela University, George, South Africa.

The paper states that in 2017, Sri Lanka set a goal to increase its forest cover to 32% by 2030. But in November 2020, the government published circular MWFC/1/2020 revoking circular 5/2001 of August 10th 2001, one of the country’s most crucial forest protection directives.

The revocation of the 5/2001 circular could severely hamper this target, posing a threat of deforestation to a variety of ecosystems which are not part of any formally designated Protected Areas (PAs), also known as OSFs, it states.

Underscoring that OSFs include forested areas adjoining PAs which are “crucial” for habitat connectivity and standalone state forest lands, the paper has pointed out that such a “retrograde” step could have potentially catastrophic ramifications on Sri Lanka’s declining forest cover.

“It would also severely weaken the country’s commitments to the UN-REDD Programme (the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation & forest Degradation); the Kyoto Protocol; and the Convention on Biological Diversity. We, therefore, call on the government to urgently reconsider and reverse this decision,” the team added.