Community support vital to preserve forest reserves - minister

The country's valuable forest reserves cannot be preserved by the government single handed without community support, said Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa.

Minister Yapa who is now in Cuba with President Mahinda Rajapaksa's delegation made this observation referring to the fire which destroyed around 500 acres in the Galewela Forest Reserve on Saturday, said a press release by the Environment Ministry yesterday.

The release added that according to Minister Yapa's observations, most forest fires in Sri Lanka are man made. Some of the fires are ignited by burning cigarette butts thrown out by people while travelling by trains or through jungle terrain, ignition of unsystematic garbage disposed by maintenance workers and burning of dried up grassland by dairy farmers to pave the way for new grasslands.

Other factors include the burning of deteriorating forest cover to facilitate the chena cultivation and setting fire to forests by poachers to drive out game for poaching. However, Minister Yapa said systematic steps would be taken through the Forest Conservation Department to prevent forest fires.

The release said setting fire to any type of forest is prohibited in terms of sections 7 and 20 of the Forest Ordinance.

All forests including forest reserves are administered by the Forest Conservation Department under the purview of the Environment Ministry and National Parks and Sanctuaries are administered by the Department of Wild Life. The release added that the Forest Conservation Department would implement a joint programme with members of rural teams and communities living in the periphery of forest reserves to control and prevent forest fires.

This would include the creation of internal and external fire gaps, the release said.