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TRINCOMALEE BAY SPECIAL MANAGEMENT AREA Page | 14
13. Preparation of comprehensive SAM Plan.
B. Scope of Interim SMA Plan
64. The scope of the interim SMA Plan was to identify important environmental issues
which needed early interventions and that were not dependent on long term studies.
NECCDEP adopted the following criteria in support of the interim “fast track” SMA Planning
approach:
1. Promote effective management of valuable natural resources to ensure
sustainable viability;
2. Rehabilitate damaged natural areas and protects sensitive eco-systems;
3. Stimulate economic development in the coastal communities by
promoting sustainable livelihood opportunities;
4. Increase awareness and inform the public about key environmental
issues;
5. Foster participation of community members to develop sense of
stewardship and promote sustainability of the resource management
system;
6. Provide equitable access to resources and livelihood opportunities
among marginalized groups and,
7. Establish institutional structures that can have harmonizing effect, and
help to reduce conflict amongst divided groups.
65. NECCDEP developed the interim SMA Plan to address the existing issues keeping
consistency with other operational plans. The work plan to guide the execution of sub-project
activities was identified under the overall SMA process and implementation of the work plan
also stimulated the local agencies, NGOs and communities. This approach built support for
the longer-term comprehensive SAM Plan amongst local agencies and communities.
66. Since the interim SMA Plan already identified and implemented priority activities, the
workload of the longer term SAM Plan is lessened because it does not need to address these
urgent priorities so allowing the focus to be on longer-term issues. This process of “fast track”
issues engagement and “quick wins” also built a stronger stakeholder constituency for
supporting the delivery of the more difficult and time consuming comprehensive SAM
planning process.
C. Interim SMA
67. NECCDEP selected all Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions which touch the coast or bay
between Pigeon Island in the north to Fowl point in the south as the interim SMA. The list of
GN divisions is given in Appendix 1. The area covered by these GN divisions is about 60km 2
out of 2630.8 km 2 (about 2.2%). A map of the interim SMA is given in Figure III.1 below. The
total number of GN divisions lying in the interim SMA is 69 and these GN divisions belong to
5 Divisional Secretary Divisions. The details are given in Table III.1 below.