English - Convention on Biological Diversity

Status of actions taken/in progressTwenty Mangrove areas (ten mangrove habitats south of Colombo and ten northwest of Colombo that arelocated outside forests have been set aside for conservation and management by the FD with the aid ofmanagement plans within the PA system.Two marine protected areas containing coral reefs have been established (at Hikkaduwa National Park and theBar Reef Marine Sanctuary) by the DWLC. Both are among the potential SAM sites identified for Special AreaManagement (SAM) by the Coast Conservation Department (CCD).The Ministry dealing with fisheries has declared several Fisheries Management Areas, 5 but no fisheries reservesthat equal the status to wildlife sanctuaries have been declared yet. The Central Environmental Authority (CEA)has identified 84 wetland sites of importance for conservation and management through the WetlandConservation Project. Site reports have been prepared for 26, of which 10 have management plans. Under theNational Environmental Act (NEA) the CEA has declared a further 8 Environmental Protection Areas (EPAs) whichdo not have total protection, but in which the CEA allows only identified activities. This enables the protectionof environmentally sensitive or biodiversity rich areas that lie outside the PA system.The National Conservation Review of Sri LankaThis constituted a systematic assessment of biodiversity by the Forest Department and IUCN-The World Conservation Union in all thenatural forests over 200 ha in the country, except in the north and east were there was political unrest. The survey was conduced fromApril 1991 to September 1996, with the main objective of defining a national system of protected areas in which forest biodiversity was fullyrepresented and watersheds important for soil conservation and hydrology were protected, while meeting the cultural, economic and socialneeds of the country. This survey covered a total of 204 forests and covered biodiversity assessments that were restricted to woody plants,vertebrates, molluscs and butterflies. Today, the NCR is hailed as one of the most detailed, comprehensive and innovative evaluations of itskind carried out on a countrywide scale to date.The NCR identified the forests as the most important for protection due to their value in terms of soil and water conservation and richbiodiversity, including much of the island’s endemics. According to the findings, 133 forests are required to conserve woody plant andvertebrate species that were recorded. The comprehensive picture of natural terrestrial biodiversity that emerged through this surveyprovides valuable information for planning an optimal network of protected areas for the country (Articles 8(a) and Article12). Even so, ofthe 204 designated forests inventoried through the NCR only 54, including the 33 conservation forests of the, lie within the country’sProtected Area Network yet.Source MoFE, 1999The GAP AnalysisThe GAP analysis carried out by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, under the Protected Area Management and WildlifeConservation Project (PAM&WC), has served to assemble a portfolio of strategic conservation sites for Sri Lanka that adequately representthe biological diversity and ecological systems of the country. This involved comparison of the existing PA system with this portfolio toindentify gaps and describe areas of conservation importance that are not in the existing PA system (gaps). All existing PAs by definition havebeen included in the final portfolio, while other sites falling outside the existing PA system have been included because they containedconservation targets that are currently not well represented or replicated, or were required to be added to the existing PA system toprovide landscape functional integrity to connect existing PAs, or form buffer zones to the PAs.Although this study was essentially a desk exercise using existing information, some information that was not commonly available has beengenerated anew. The process actively involved a wide range of stakeholders and expert review teams. Recommendations are provided for aconceptual shift from a system of PAs to a network of PAs and the means to achieve it (Articles 8(a)). The gap analysis produced basemaps, a condition index for vegetative type conservation targets, maps of selected threatened endemic species (e.g. amphibians, agamidlizards, marine turtles, bird eating spiders, and snails), flora and rock outcrops.Source: Portfolio of Strategic Conservation Sites / Protected Area Gap Analysis In Sri Lanka, MoENR, 20065 The area encompassing the Great and Little Basses reefs, the Kumbukkan Oya estuary and the Buttuwa Rock, off Yala, declared in July 2001,for protection of their undisturbed reefs, unique setting and archaeological importance; the Madiha-Polhena coral reef ecosystem, declared inJuly 2001; The Negombo Lagoon declared in July 1998; The Rekawa Lagoon declared in February 1999;The Bolgoda Lake Lagoon declared inJuly 2001;The Batticoloa Lagoon declared in January 2001.Fourth National Report to the CBD: Sri Lanka Appendix IIIxiv