National policy to protect ecologically sensitive areas awaits whetting by AG

By Ifham Nizam

The national policy to protect ecologically sensitive areas in Sri Lanka had been completed, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said yesterday, adding that steps would be taken to submit it to the Attorney General’s Department for whetting and to the Cabinet and Parliament subsequently.

“Our country is rich in biodiversity. According to the National Red Data List, 253 species of snails, 245 species of butterflies, 240 species of birds, 211 species of reptiles, 748 species of vertebrates and 1492 species of invertebrates live in our environment.”

“Nearly 43% of the Teridopite species, 87% of the amphibians, 59% of the reptiles, 19% of the mammals and seven percent of the bird species were endemic as well as 336 species of ferns and 3154 species of flowering plants,” he said

“As the Minister of Environment, I fulfill my responsibility to take policy measures to protect all these natural resources. Therefore, the draft National Policy on Environmentally Sensitive Areas in Sri Lanka has now been prepared. These days I am studying its legal provisions”, the Minister said.

He also said that it was the first time that a national policy on such sensitive environmental zones had been formulated in Sri Lanka.

Those included Gangawadiya and Eluwankulama in Puttalam District, Manewa in the Anuradhapura District and Galnewa in the Kurunegala district.

When development projects were carried out without the requisite national policy protection such sensitive environmental areas might not be identified and thus unknowingly damaged, the Minister said. Living in such sensitive ecosystems, even endangered species of animals and plants could become extinct, he added.

“We also plan to designate three sensitive marine ecological zones in line with this policy. The first is the ocean region from Mannar to Rameshwaram. We look forward to the support of the government of India in designating this marine zone as a sensitive ecosystem. The other two are Trincomalee and Batticaloa Marine Zones and South sea zone from Galle to Hambantota zones.

“We will designate these three zones as sensitive ecological zones and take steps to conserve them.”