Minister stresses eco-friendly development

Disna Mudalige

The country needs to use unique methods to safeguard biodiversity and the ecosystem for present and future generations while striving for economic development, Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

Environment Ministry Secretary B M U D Basnayake hands over the ‘National Red List 2012’ to Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa

He said the challenge before the country is to achieve the set economic targets to become the emerging Wonder of Asia while conserving rich biodiversity. He made these remarks delivering the keynote address at the launch of the 'National Red List 2012 of Sri Lanka' at the Waters Edge in Battaramulla yesterday.

The latest update of the National Red List was prepared based on the IUCN global criteria by the Biodiversity Secretariat of the ministry in collaboration with the National Herbarium of the National Botanical Gardens Department. The list contains 2,264 evaluated faunal species, including 936 endemic and 3,492 evaluated floral species, including 943 endemic.

It also consists of provisional checklists of less known faunal groups to create interest among students and scientists to venture into new areas of study. The distribution of the threatened species indicates that the highest number of threatened species is found in the wet zone districts such as Kandy, Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Galle and Kalutara.

The minister said the National Red List is a powerful tool of providing information to take decisions to balance development and conservation.

He said the content of the book would be made available for everybody via the web page of the ministry.

Colombo University Senior Lecturer and Technical Coordinator of Fauna Prof Devaka Weerakoon revealing the "Process of red listing and present status of fauna in Sri Lanka" said one of the the main lessons learnt during the red listing was that the lack of knowledge which is the biggest drawback in conserving the biodiversity of Sri Lanka.

National Botanical Gardens Director General and Technical Coordinator of Flora Dr Siri Wijetunga said the government is working to increase botanical gardens. It is expected to set up 10 botanical gardens in different climatic zones of the country by 2016, he said.

Scientists, researchers and leading environmentalists participated.