By Dinithi Gunasekera
As we bid farewell to a rather difficult year, to say the least, stepping into a new year of electrifying aspirations is almost a given. However, it is crucial to note that we as a nation should address points of concern that sprung up throughout the course of 2020 before false hopes of grounding ourselves into the year of 2021.
In conversation with former Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) Director General Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya, The Sunday Morning Brunch uncovered some key concerns for 2020 and what needs to be focused on in 2021.
Below are excerpts of the interview.
What are the most critical points of concern in relation to wildlife/environment/nature, according to you?
The most critical issue of concern in relation to environmental, wildlife, and nature conservation in Sri Lanka at present, in my opinion, is the apparent disregard of the Government concerning ecosystems and the services ecosystems provide.
It does not appear that the political authorities comprehend that ecosystems provide services that are needed by humans for development. Services such as availability of water, fertile soil, climate control, and weather.
Even the most short-sighted politician should realise that without such ecosystem services, Sri Lanka’s development will be hindered. There is an abundance of scientific evidence which shows that higher the biodiversity of an ecosystem, higher the ability of that ecosystem to provide the services needed for development.
So the rational way to ensure sustainable development of a country is to protect its biodiversity and ensure diverse ecosystems exist for the provision of much-needed ecosystem services. For that, we need to protect our ecosystems, which include forests and biodiversity.
Yet, we see that the Government seems oblivious to the science that ensures the sustainability of resources needed for development. Their recent actions of reducing the level of protection of “other state forests” by transferring their management from the Forest Conservation Department to divisional secretariats so that land could be used for development; other examples of deforestation of sections of protected areas, promotion of development activities in wetlands, attempts to open public roads within national parks, and political pressure to permit cattle grazing within protected areas are a few such examples of blatant disregard of ensuring the integrity of sensitive ecosystems. Haphazard fragmentation of such ecosystems, if determined by political expediency rather than science, will no doubt lead to a decline in the provision of ecosystem service.
Short-sighted decisions will destroy the same ecosystems the country needs to depend on for the provision of ecosystem services needed for development.
Are there any developments you have noticed within these sectors or any positive turn?
There appear to be a few positive developments in the area of animal rights, such as the approval of the Animal Welfare Bill. Unfortunately, I don’t see such positive developments when it comes to the conservation and protection of the natural environment and wildlife.
According to your experiences and observations, what’s the current status of Sri Lanka’s wildlife and environment?
I feel the wildlife sector is in a very precarious situation. The effective management of the wildlife sector (or any sector, for that matter) starts with the proper institutional arrangements for management of the sector. Unfortunately, currently there is complete confusion in the institutional arrangements for managing the wildlife sector. There is a Cabinet Minister for Wildlife and Forest Resources and a State Minister for Wildlife Conservation Protection Programmes including Electric Fence and Ditch Construction, and Re-Forestation and Wildlife Resources Development.
According to the Government gazette, the DWC is not under the Cabinet Minister, but under the State Minister. While overall wildlife conservation policy-making remains with the Cabinet Ministry, the agency mandated with implementing the policies is not accountable to the policy making ministry but accountable to the State Ministry.
In the past, the cabinet, state, and deputy ministers were under one ministry and under one budgetary vote. So co-ordination was easier among the politicians. But now we have a situation where policy is made by the Cabinet Ministry while the DWC and its budgetary vote is under the State Ministry.
This is an ideal prescription for a dysfunctional wildlife sector. This can work if, and only if, there is exceptionally close co-ordination and co-operation between the cabinet and state ministries. But we all know that Sri Lanka is a country where good co-ordination among ministries and agencies for the betterment of the country is a pipe dream, as individual egos govern the day. This is quite apparent even now in the wildlife sector.
Unfortunately, the loser in this dysfunctional arrangement is the nation’s wildlife. While this type of segmentation of responsibilities may work for anthropogenic sectors, it certainly does not work for nature.
My concerns about the manner in which wildlife conservation is being mismanaged is typified by a recent comment made in the media by the State Minister, where he stated that it is his responsibility to work for the people. There are several ministries and over 100 government agencies that have the statutory responsibility to address issues of the people. There is only one agency – the DWC – in the country that has the responsibility to address wildlife conservation.
If the minister responsible for the DWC thinks that his responsibility is to work for the people, who is there to take care of wildlife?
Within the topic of wildlife, environment, and nature, what immediate issues are supposed to be addressed in moving forward to 2021?
Issue I: Human-elephant conflict (HEC) mitigation
The HEC is a significant social, political, and environmental issue in Sri Lanka. Although we have been trying to solve this problem for the last 60 years, we have been unsuccessful, as evidenced by the statistics of elephant and human deaths. The conflict is increasing every year, which is the clearest indication that what we are doing to mitigate the problem is wrong. Basically, what successive governments have been trying to do is to restrict elephants to DWC protected areas through the erection of electric fences.
This has failed for the last 60 years, but successive governments keep attempting to do the same tried-tested-failed method. This is failing because we humans are expecting elephants to do what we want and we seem to be baffled when they do not do so. Considering that humans feel that we are the most evolved species, don’t you think that we should realise after 60 years of failure that we cannot expect elephants to do what we want and that we should understand elephants and try to work around them, rather than expecting them to work around us?
Issue II: Institutional arrangements for environmental conservation
There are several government institutions tasked with a mandate to ensure Sri Lanka’s biodiversity and ecosystems are conserved. The DWC, Forest Department , Central Environmental Authority (CEA), Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management, and Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) are a few of them. It is important that an island nation like Sri Lanka has a powerful conservation-oriented ministry since we have a limited extent of land, with an expanding population and a declining natural resource base – it should be obvious to all that this model is unsustainable.
Strong co-ordination among conservation agencies would go a long way in ensuring Sri Lanka’s development is sustainable and biodiversity is conserved. Yet, we have the conservation agencies spread among several different ministries, making co-ordination difficult at best. The Government should consolidate all conservation agencies under one ministry and that ministry should have only one mandate – conservation. I am hoping that the President considers this at the next cabinet reshuffle. If the institutional arrangements are right, half the conservation battle is won.
A look at some of the events that transpired in 2020
January
- The year started off with a cold-blooded dog shooting in an animal dungeon Kobeigane, Nikaweratiya, followed by widespread public uproar, with activists once again pushing towards the enactment of the Animal Welfare Bill
- Sri Lanka ranked first in the category of Asia’s Best Nation for Wildlife Tourism by Top 10 Asia, an English language magazine published in Malaysia, the High Commission of Sri Lanka in Kuala Lumpur
- Experts warn that Sri Lanka is facing a climate crisis rather than climate change,
following alarming shifts in Sri Lanka’s climate leading to repeated cycles of natural disasters including floods, drought, landslides, and cyclones - Leopard deaths near Udawalawe National Park and Yatiyantota. Four individuals including two hunters were arrested
- Melanistic colour variant of the Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) spotted: Black Leopard not extinct, states the DWC
- Surges in wildlife trafficking observed following the Illegal export of 100 star tortoises and attempts to smuggle 200 live venomous scorpions
February
- The Sinharaja rainforest reserve has sustained “great damage” due to the construction of concrete-laden roads. Construction of the Kudawa access road to Sinharaja has destroyed the natural habitat endemic species (i.e. bulath hapaya)
April
- Lockdown imposed amidst the pandemic has a positive turn for wildlife in areas with rampant over-visitation and unregulated feeding of wildlife, experts say (i.e. Yala)
May
- Rare black leopard rescued from a snare in Nallathanniya dies. General protocol following leopard deaths reportedly not followed. Crowds had been allowed to gather around the traumatised animal, even after the authority outreach
- Retired Superintendent of Police (SP) allegedly shot and killed a dog that was kept as a pet at a neighbouring house in Periyamulla, Negombo
June
- The Prime Minister instructs to take prompt action to minimise the human-elephant conflict
July
- Two elephant calves observed in Sri Lanka’s Minneriya National Park in June are the island’s first recorded live twins
August
- Conservationist and former DWC Director General Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya estimated that the number of elephant deaths decreased by 40% during the coronavirus lockdown, which started in March and officially ended in June (first Covid wave)
- The President instructs to find a sustainable solution to human-elephant conflict within two years, during a meeting to discuss future activities of the State Ministry of Wildlife Conservation Protection Programmes including Electric Fence and Ditch Construction and Reforestation and Wildlife Resources Development: A long-overdue resolution of nearly 40 years
September
- The Ududumbara Police arrested three individuals transporting parts of a leopard carrying a severed head and different parts of the beast’s body for sale (17 kg of leopard flesh)
- Cabinet approval received to ban cattle slaughter as tabled by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. “As a country with an economy based on agriculture, the contribution of the cattle resource to develop the livelihood of the rural people of Sri Lanka is immense.”
- Three-member committee appointed by the President to find a stable solution to the human-elephant conflict to present the Action Plan soon
October
- Leopard population in Sri Lanka, less than 1,000, was shortlisted as “endangered” on the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List as early as 2016
- Two endangered leopards, including a rare melanistic black panther, were killed after getting caught to traps, within less than a span of a week
- Mystery sea turtle deaths in olive ridley: Sea turtles washed ashore on the beaches of Colombo
November
- Volunteers braved a pandemic lockdown to help push over 120 short-finned pilot whales out to sea after they beached in southwestern Sri Lanka in Panadura
- The status of the Sri Lankan subspecies leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is down-listed from Endangered (EN) to Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Global Red List of Threatened Species
