Welcome curious minds to my weekly blog! Yesterday was quite an exciting day for me, I attended a tree planting event organised by Janathakshan (GTE) Ltd (my workplace) in collaboration with MAS Holdings which was held in Siwalakuluma, Anuradhapura. The tree planting program was organised as a part of the CRIWM Project (Climate Resilient Integrated Water Management Project), this is a seven-year project funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through the UNDP in Sri Lanka. Janathakshan is an implementing partner organisation for this project in Anuradhapura. The project aims to develop a cascade ecosystem around tanks that are been rehabilitated under this project. To initiate a cascade ecosystem, land around tanks will be planted with trees such as Kumbuk (Terminalia arjuna), Mee (Nauclea orientalis), Karanda (Pongamia pinnata) and Maila (Bauhinia racemosa). The tree planting program on Saturday 26th of January succeeded in planting around 1500 trees around the tanks of Sembigewewa and Rambakulama of the Siwalakulama cascade with great participation from the community. There will also be future tree planting programs as a part of the project to create more cascade ecosystems.
Planting trees around these cascades will also improve the tree cover which will help Sri Lanka to reach its Paris Agreement targets on increasing forest tree cover. In comparison to most countries both developed and developing, Sri Lanka still has a high forest cover but in comparison to the historical records, we have been losing our forests at a rapid rate. Deforestation of forests has increased after the end of the civil war that lasted for 25 odd years in Sri Lanka. It is evident from the observation that there is significant forest cover loss but there is still no government published statistical data that proves this statement. I can make this statement confidently as I was a thematic reviewer for the Voluntary Peoples Review (VPR), it was a report done parallel to the Voluntary National Review (VNR) but with the consultation of stakeholders from all sectors. VPR was conducted for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. During the research to identify the base indicator for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SDG 15 (Life on Land), it was clear that the only statistics that could be used for forest cover was from a 1980s survey and it was 29.7%. However, this is the same number used in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and the REDD+ report for Sri Lanka, which is concerning since it is an outdated statistic. Interestingly there was a report released in 2014 by the Convention on Biological Diversity which predicted a decline in forest cover to 17% by 2020. Overall, since the only government released data is 29.7%, the NDCs target a 32% increase in forest cover by 2030. Personally, I don’t believe this is an optimistic target, simply because we are privileged to have unique biodiversity and a variety of endemic flora and fauna species but the forest cover is not enough to sustain it.
The Sri Lankan Government has already initiated a project called the “Wana Ropa Programme” to achieve the NDC targets from 2016 to 2018. Apart from government initiatives, there have been a few public tree planting events as well. All the private environmental organisations are confident that the current forest cover is much lower than 29.7% but more around 18 to 19%. If all the environmental policies in Sri Lanka were actually implemented, the forest cover would be much higher the current statistics (whatever it is, since it is unknown). There are many policies covering land degradation, deforestation and land use, if implemented and monitored would actually ensure high forest cover. We do have UNESCO heritage sites such as the Sinharaja forest and the Central Highlands as well as a number of RAMSAR sites but tragically even the Sinharaja forest is under threat from hotels and other developments such as roads which are planned to be constructed close to or within the site. It is our government’s responsibility to ensure that they implement the laws and policies that are already present to preserve forests such as the Sinharaja for future generations and for all the species that call it home.
I will conclude by stating a quote from the Great Mahatma Gandhi “What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another”.
Stay tuned for my next blog next week! Hope you enjoyed the read and learned something new.
Comments
Like you said there is much to be done on the part of our politicians,but sadly they are the people who are behind most of the wrong deeds.Recently I read in a local newspaper an article about how large trees in the Singharaja Forest have been poisoned, making holes in the tree trunk, so they appear to have died naturally.
Keep up your good work!!