Effecting local biodiversity action plans

Biodiversity and bio piracy is a topic ringing in Sri Lanka today with certain issues related to these becoming the talking point.Technology and Research Minister Prof Tissa Vitharana recently appointed a 12-member Task Force to make recommendations to safeguard indigenous biodiversity and knowledge in Sri Lanka. The people who are aware of the country’s wide variety of natural resources would welcome this move

Lionel WIJESIRI

Looking at a new world

Today we share the planet with as many as 13 million different living species including plants, animals and bacteria, only 1.75 million of which have been named and recorded. This incredible natural wealth is a priceless treasure that forms the ultimate foundation of our human wellbeing.

If we talk of Sri Lanka, despite its relatively small size, we possess a very high level of biodiversity. A noteworthy feature of our biodiversity is the remarkable high proportion of endemic species among its flora and fauna: 23 percent of the flowering plants and 16 percent of the mammals in the island are endemic. Sri Lanka has a wide range of topographic and climatic variation and this contributes to the special features of its biodiversity.

Sri Lanka has been identified by the environment activist group Conservation International (CI) as one of 25 biodiversity hot spots in the world. These hot spots could have maximum benefit by preservation efforts, the magazine said in a cover story titled “Heroes for the Planet: Earth Angles”. Sri Lanka’s tropical rain forest ecosystem is considered as an area which is disturbed by human activity, but still exceptionally rich in animal and plant species found nowhere else.

Changes

However, our planet is undergoing radical ecological change. The beginning of the 21st Century has been marked by an unprecedented pressure on natural resources. The resulting energy-intensive industrialisation has caused profound changes to the ecology, including the disappearance of hundreds of plant and animal species, radical climate change and the rarefaction of drinking water.

Another reason is the exponential rise in consumption generated by a world population which expanded from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 6.7 billion today. It will reach nine billion in 2050. Two-thirds of the people will live in cities.Around 39 percent of all the species on the planet are considered to be under threat today. Biological impoverishment could cost Rs. 350,000 billion per year, i.e. 6% of the gross national product worldwide. A new model for growth must be invented, more resource-friendly and a creator of value for the environment.

Human activity is causing the diversity of life on Earth to be lost at a greatly accelerated rate. Felling or burning of forests, removal of mangroves, intensive farming, pollution stress, overfishing and the impacts of climate change are all destroying biodiversity. These losses are irreversible, impoverish us all and damage the life support systems we rely on every day. But we can prevent them.

These were the reasons why the UN has decided to declare 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. For us in Sri Lanka, it’s a great opportunity to reflect on our achievements to safeguard biodiversity and focus on the urgency of our challenge for the future.

Definitely we can do our share and help ourselves and the UN to stop this loss, the question is will we? The International Year of Biodiversity is our chance to prove we will. Now is the time to act.

Local biodiversity

The starting point, I believe, is the creation of Local biodiversity Plans. What does Local Diversity means? In short, it refers to the living natural heritage within our provincial districts, i.e. local fauna and flora. That natural heritage is a source of direct or indirect income for local authorities.

To protect and enhance that heritage, it is imperative that all Provincial Councils must be provided with a biodiversity diagnostic, with tangible objectives for improvement. Customised, sustainable solutions should then be designed in partnership with the relevant authorities to intervene directly on sensitive sites, such as improving wastewater services or recovering energy from waste.

The Government should introduce landscape-scale policies, to be agreed between Provincial authorities, with measurable objectives. Such plan policies and decisions should seek to maintain or enhance or add biodiversity conservation interests. They should be based on up-to-date information about bio-diversity and geological resources of each Province, including an assessment of the potential to enhance those resources.

The policies could include the restoration and protection of natural features such as water channels, wetlands, forests, the reduction of flood risk, and the encouragement of local food production. Environmental capacity can be used as the key guidance for identifying sites for development in the planning system by giving Provincial authorities a duty to protect local biodiversity and set local targets for wildlife by promoting the establishment of wildlife corridors.

In short, each Provincial Council should be assisted to prepare a Local Biodiversity Action Plan aiming to achieve wider involvement to ensure that both national and local priorities are protected for the benefit of everyone both today and for future generations.

Guidelines

Trees, insects and wild animals... Nature is present everywhere. File photos

An important aspect of the Local Biodiversity Action Plan process is to ensure that whatever changes we make in our everyday actions should protect and enhance biodiversity. Currently various projects are undertaken throughout provinces involving local groups to promote, protect and enhance biodiversity. But those are not enough. More need to be done.

There is a need to be engaged with as wide a section of the Councils as possible. Further links should continue to be made with schools and community groups as well as businesses in the area. To ensure the success of the Local Biodiversity Action Plan, it is necessary that all stakeholders become actively involved, working in partnership with each other to sustain, enhance and protect local biodiversity.

What we can do

In the meantime, there are lots of things all citizens can do, however big or small, which will help biodiversity in their Provinces. Everyone needs to be involved to ensure the plan is successful.

Businessmen in each Province have the key role to play. All businesses should take into account how their actions effect the environment and local biodiversity. All business establishments should be in the position to enhance their local environment through involvement with their local community. This could involve providing space for biodiversity on their grounds, sponsoring events or involving staff in environmental projects in the area.

Raising awareness of the importance of protecting and enhancing biodiversity is one of the most important aspects of the biodiversity action plan process. While many groups in most of the Provinces are already motivated and involved in a wide range of environmental projects or issues, more people need to be encouraged to take an interest in their local environment. One very important way of ensuring future interest in environmental issues is to engage schoolchildren and encourage them to take an interest in issues that will affect their future.

Crime Unit

We will also have to strengthen the penalties for crimes against the natural environment including wildlife crime, pollution and litter which threaten wildlife. The illegal trade in wildlife products threatens some rare species and more action is needed to control it. We must ensure that a National Wildlife Crime Unit be instituted and has a coordinator in every provincial police force.

There are many ways community groups and schools can get involved to improve their local environment while learning of the importance of biodiversity and protecting our environment. All these areas offer a huge scope for enhanced biodiversity through appropriate management by the Provincial Councils.