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TRINCOMALEE BAY SPECIAL MANAGEMENT AREA Page | 6
21. The first Sri Lanka CZMP Plan was produced in 1990 some 9 years after the 1981 Act
came into force. It included the concept of Special Area Management (SAM).
22. The second Sri Lanka CZMP Plan was approved on 10th September 1997 and
included SAM plans for Rekawa and Hikkaduwa (Ref.0945). The Plan identified 21 more sites as
important coastal sites based on a set of criteria which included: (a) severity of resource
management issues, (b) biodiversity, (c) viability of SAM concept at the site and (d) economic
significance. The Plan also addressed issues of permits, prohibited activities, setback,
exemptions and variations, monitoring of compliance, Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA) and Initial Environmental Examinations (IEE).
23. The third Sri Lanka CZMP was completed before the tsunami on 26th December
2004. The CZMP was revised following the tsunami and was published in the Gazette on the
24th January 2006 and became operational from that date (Ref.0903).
24. SAM sites are categorised at 2 levels. SAM level-1 sites have larger geographical
areas with multiple resource use conflicts and SAM level-2 sites have a smaller geographical
area with fewer resource user conflicts. In this categorization process, Trincomalee Bay was
identified as a potential SAM Level-1 site.
25. Special Area Management (SAM) is an innovative approach where local communities
play a significant role in planning and management. The concept of SAM is the collaborative,
adaptive and flexible approach to resource management within a defined geographic area.
The SAM concept, introduced to Sri Lanka in 1980, is now an integral component of national
coastal zone management policy.
SAM Planning is a locally-based, geographically-specific planning process that, in theory, is a
highly participatory practice that allows for the comprehensive management of natural resources
with the active involvement of the local community as the main stakeholder group. It involves comanagement
of resources where local community groups are considered the custodians of the
resources being managed under the SAM process through which sustainable livelihood practices
allow for sustainable natural resources use and management within the designated area.
(CZMP, 2004, Gazette, 2006)
F. Trincomalee Bay
26. Trincomalee bay is a prominent landscape in the geography of Sri Lanka due to an
extensive deep water bay, which functioned as natural harbour for thousands of years before
becoming a commercial harbour about 200 years back. Trincomalee bay is a large basin
estuarine ecosystem rather than a single water body and consists of the large central estuary
of Koddiyar bay that is contiguous with smaller bays including Inner harbour bay with China
bay and Thampalagamam bay, Shell bay, and Dutch bay.
27. A 1-2 km stretch from the shoreline towards sea in the southern and eastern sections
of the bay is generally shallow with 10-12 m depth and then sharply deepens to a depth of
400-800 m in the core area of the bay. The bay mouth towards the northern harbour area is
about 55-68 m deep. Due to the depth, these areas are not suitable for the growth of coastal
vegetation such as mangroves and associates. However the western section of
Thampalagamam bay is generally shallow (1-2 m in depth) and provide suitable habitats for
mangrove vegetation and mudflats. Prominent mangrove vegetation could be identified along
the southern and south-western sections of Thampalagamam bay.