in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

National Species Database and coordinating all matters pertaining to species conservationincluding periodic updating of the National Red List.In 2009, the Biodiversity Secretariat started updating the National Red List. The updatingof flora has been done in collaboration with the National Herbarium of the Department ofNational Botanical Gardens to evaluate the flora of the country. For this purpose an expertgroup was established for higher plants and pteridophytes. The task of data compiling forthe evaluation of plants was handed over to the National Herbarium, which gathered datafrom all published literature and herbarium sheets. As only 1,099 species had been evaluatedduring the preparation of 2007 Red List, a decision was taken to enter all relevant informationavailable for flowering plants and pteridophytes in to the National Species Database. Preparingthe distribution maps of each of the species and draft evaluations were done by the SpeciesConservation Unit of the Biodiversity Secretariat and presented to the expert committee forthe final evaluation. All the native higher plants and pteridophytes were evaluated under thisproject. When one species has more than one sub species or varieties species assessmentwas done first and the sub species/variety assessment was done subsequently if data wereavailable and/or subspecies/variety is more threatened than the species. When both cultivatedand wild varieties are present assessment was done based on the wild variety. Nomenclature ofthe flora was done following the most recent published literature. In the preparation of specieslist the most updated nomenclatura available was used unless otherwise stated.For the fauna, expert committees were established for freshwater crabs, spiders, dragonflies,butterflies, ants, bees, land snails, freshwater fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Inaddition, an expert group was formed for marine organisms. The data compilation, preparationof maps and draft evaluations were carried out by the Species Conservation Unit andpresented to the individual expert groups for final evaluation. For each taxonomic group twoexpert committee meetings were held. Comments received at the first meeting were includedand presented at the final meeting where the lists and conservation status were finalized.Nomenclature of the fauna was done according to the latest published literature available.All the species related data were entered into excel sheets that were used for the preparationof species distribution maps using Arc view 3.2 software package. In most of the publicationsonly the name of the location was given with province or district, but no geographic information.To overcome the problem a database was created using coordinates obtained from 1:50,000scale maps of the Survey Department and geographic coordinates presented in the NationalGazetteer. The species distribution maps were used to calculate the Extent of Occurrence(EOO) and Area of Occupancy (AOO) and to clarify the distribution points of the species. Incalculation of the AOO 2 x 2 Km grid was used. District boundary maps, climatic zone maps,river basins and protected area network maps were overlaid for each species distribution mappresented at the expert meetings.In application of Red List criteria, criteria B was used in most cases and criteria A and C wereused in cases where the population data is available. As a precautionary measure, CategoryCritically Endangered possibly extinct CR(PE) was given to species with no distribution recordsin last 60 years as no comprehensive surveys has been conducted during recent past.xxi