in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

ConservationSurvival of highly diverse land snail fauna of Sri Lanka is therefore dependent on the effectiveconservation of the country’s remaining rainforest fragments in the lowland rainforests of wetzone and the montane forests as endemism is restricted to localized zones within these areas.The following recommendations are made to promote research and conservation activities ofland snails of Sri Lanka (Ranawana, 2006).Conclusions and recommendationsSome of the key recommendations include• Conduct research on the ecology and distribution of land snails of Sri Lanka, with particularemphasis on the endemic and relict taxa which in turn help to identify the land snailhotspots.• Develop plans for population restoration of endemic and relict species which are facingthe danger of extinction due to habitat loss (such as development activities and inundationof land due to dam building). The affected taxa could be translocated to suitable areashaving similar habitat conditions.• Establish strict regulation to control the entry of exotic land snails in to the country mainlythrough the import trade of vegetables and foliage plants. Attempts should be made tocontrol these exotic species as much as possible before they colonize natural forest habitatsin the country• Care should be taken to control the spread of some predatory gastropods, which hasbeen introduced to the country in early 1950s to control Lissachatina fulica. Still, individualsof predatory gastropod Eustreptaxis kibweziensis are recorded from Peradeniya,where it was first introduced. This predatory carnivore population has to be eradicatedbefore it enters the natural habitats.• Increase the awareness of village communities and school children about the importanceof land snails as an integral component of the ecosystem. The message that “not allsnails are pests” should be clearly conveyed to the general public. The role of snails inbreaking down leaf litter should be recognized.ReferencesCain, A. J. & Currey, J. D., (1963). Area effects in Cepaea. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ofLondon. Series B, Biological Sciences, 246(726), pp.1 -81.Cain, A. J. & Sheppard. P. M., (1950). Selection of in the polymorphic land snail Cepaes nemoralis. Heridity, 4,pp.275– 294.Cowie, R. H., (1992). Variation in species diversity and shell shape in Hawaiian land snails: in situ speciation andecological relationships. Evolution, 49(6), pp.1191 – 1202.Emberton, K. C., Pearce, T. A., Kasigawa, P. F., Tattersfield, P. & Habibu, Z., (1997). High diversity and regionalendemism in land snails of eastern Tanzania. Biodiversity and Conservation, 6(8), pp.1123 – 1136.Emberton, K. C., (1995). Land-snail community morphologies of the highest-diversity sites of Madagascar, NorthAmerica and New Zealand, with recommended alternatives to height-diameter plots. Malacologia, 36(1 -2),pp.43 -66.Kay, E. A., (1995). Which molluscs for extinction?. In: E. A. Kay, ed. 1995. The conservation Biology of Molluscs.Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. Ch. 1, pp.1-11.67