Sri Lanka Wildlife Protection Society, boost to local wildlife conservation

NEW YORK: In October 1995 a group of Sri Lankans and Americans met at the Taprobane Sri Lanka restaurant in New York City, convened by Conservation Biologist, Ravi Corea to incorporate the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS).

It was the beginning of a Society, with a handful of founding members and a mandate to develop a sustainable and progressive model to contribute to the conservation efforts in Sri Lanka.

From basically a one man operation the SLWCS has grown today into an organisation with a dynamic international board and a staff of 30 people with several large projects in five Administrative Provinces in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (www.SLWCS.org) is the first organisation to be established outside Sri Lanka for the sole purpose of helping to conserve and preserve the dwindling biodiversity of Sri Lanka.

The Society is a fully incorporated non-profit, tax-exempt organisation based in the U.S.A., and a registered voluntary social service non-governmental organisation with the Ministry of Social Welfare in Sri Lanka.

All SLWCS projects are done with the approval of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Forest Department, Tourist Board and various other national, local and regional government authorities of Sri Lanka.

The Society helps local people who are the most affected by wildlife and who in turn most affect wildlife. The SLWCS recognizes the fact that if it is to effectively promote best conservation practice then it is vital to garner local support for environmental conservation.

From very early on - in fact from the time of its inception the Society realized that to achieve success, nature conservation needed to be meaningful and beneficial to local stakeholders.

The biggest impact on threatened species, habitats and ecosystems come from the people who lived adjacent to them and the reasons are mostly due to lack of economic and livelihood opportunities.

The Society’s approach to conservation and field research is clearly reflected in its mission, which is to enable communities to balance ecosystem protection and economic development by pioneering a model for sustainable conservation.

To paraphrase Corea, founder and President of the Society, “long-term conservation can only be achieved by ensuring a reasonable standard of living for all people - sustainable economic development is imperative for wildlife and human beings to co-exist.”

Since it was established over 30 international organizations have funded the projects of the SLWCS with continued support provided by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the International Elephant Foundation, Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, Alexander Abraham Foundation, IUCN Netherlands Committee, Born Free Foundation, World Women Work, and Elephant Care International to name a few.

When the tsunami of December 2004 devastated the coasts of Sri Lanka the SLWCS was appointed to a seven member committee by the Department of Wildlife Conservation to conduct the first post-tsunami ecological assessments of all the protected areas impacted by the tsunami followed by another assessment one year after the tsunami.

Recently the Department of Wildlife Conservation commended the SLWCS for its role in developing innovative strategies to resolve human elephant conflicts, and requested the SLWCS to help the Department in their efforts to resolve human-elephant conflicts for the conservation of the Sri Lankan elephant.

Today even the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka is applying concepts developed for our Saving Elephants by Helping People project as a strategy in their efforts to resolve the increasing human-elephant conflicts.

The project known as Saving Elephants by Helping People has been in operation for the past 10 years and has installed 41 Kilometers of electric fencing since its inception.

The Society also provided the historical Somawathiya Chaitiya with an electric fence to safeguard temple property and pilgrims from wild elephants while making sure the normal movements of elephants were not hindered by the fence.

A new project the Society recently initiated is Project Orange Elephant. Through its ongoing research work it was found that elephants do not eat nor destroy citrus trees.

Trials were conducted with the Dehiwala Zoo elephants to observe whether elephants will selectively eat oranges when provided with a wide selection of foods.

The trials showed that elephants were not partial to oranges nor will they selectively eat them if other food choices are available.

The SLWCS has provided funding support to the Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust for its school environment awareness program and to translate a book about elephants to Sinhala.

The Society helped organise as well as provided sponsorships to the Symposium on Human Elephant Relationships and Conflicts organized by the International Elephant Foundation and the Biodiveristy and Elephant Conservation Trust.

The symposium was held in Sri Lanka and had over 200 international participants. Additionally the Society contributed to provide airfare to send a veterinarian from the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage for advance training to the USA.

Through its responsible travel and ecotourism initiatives the Society helped Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando to develop a partnership with Biosphere Expeditions to generate funds for his elephant research and conservation efforts at Yala.