in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

leadership to achieve this daunting task. On the contrary, few local and foreign academics andNon Governmental Organizations have been in the forefront of such exploration in the recenttimes. Their work led to the discovery of number of new species of plants and animals over thepast decade as indicated in Table 2.Even if we mange to fully inventorize the biodiversity of Sri Lanka, it will be impossible toconserve all of them. Therefore, we will have to choose those species that require our immediateattention. Thus the conservation status of each species has to be determined. Based on suchan evaluation a list of species is compiled with their present conservation status. Such lists arereferred to as Red Lists or Threatened Lists and can be done at national, regional or globalscale. These lists will help us to prioritize conservation action as well as to plan national andinternational legislature. However, listing the conservation status is only the first step towardsconserving threatened species. This should be followed with three other important steps whichare planning, implementation, and monitoring. It appears that we have failed to address theseissues appreciably. This clearly indicates that even though the need to conserve threatenedspecies has been recognized, the necessary steps to conserve them have not been taken.Sri Lanka has a rich history of conserving biodiversity, which dates back to the ancient kings.Furthermore, Sri Lanka has a biodiversity that is worthy of conservation. There is also a greatdeal of enthusiasm among our people to conserve the biodiversity of this country. Now is thetime to harness this enthusiasm and provide the right kind of leadership to the conservationmovement of this country as there is still time to save the biodiversity of Sri Lanka. However,one must bear in mind that this is a race against time and time lost will also result in loss ofspecies.ReferencesAshton, P. M. S. & Gunatilleke, C. V. S., (1987). New light on the plant geography of Ceylon I. Historical plantgeography. Journal of Biogeography, 14, pp. 249-285.Brookes, T. M., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., Fonseca, G. A. B. Da., Rylands, A. B., Konstant, W. R., Flick,P., Pilgrim, J., Oldfield, S., Magin, G. & Hilton-Taylor, C., (2002). Habitat loss and extinction in the hotspots ofbiodiversity. Conservation Biology, 16, pp.909-923.Gunatilleke, I. A. U. N., Gunatilleke, C. V. S. & Dilhan, M. A. A. B., (2005). Plant biogeography and conservation ofthe southwestern hill forests of Sri Lanka. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement No. 12, pp.9-22Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., Fonseca, G. A. B. Da & Kent, J., (2000). Biodiversity hot spots forConservation Priorities. Nature, 403, pp.853-858.NARESA., (1991). Natural resources of Sri Lanka: conditions and trends. Colombo: Natural Resources, Energy andScience Authority.Russell-Smith, A. & Stork, N. E., (1995). Composition of Spider communities in the canopies of rain forest trees inBorneo. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 11, pp. 223-235.Stork, N. E., Adis, J., & Didham, R.K. eds., (1997a). Canopy Arthropods. London: Chapman & Hall.Stork, N. E., Adis, J., & Didham, R.K., (1997b). Canopy Arthropod studies for the future. In: N.E. Stork, J. Adis, &R.K. Didham, eds. 1997. Canopy Arthropods. London: Chapman & Hall.pp.551-561.Warakagoda, D. H. & Rasmussen, P. C., (2004). A new species of scops-owl from Sri Lanka. Bull. B.O.C., 124 (2),pp. 85-105.xix