Culture and traditions of Sri Lankans are foster by the Biodiversity adding countless value for them. The country has the tradition of Biodiversity Conservation ever since the King Devanampiyatissa in 7th century BC. He declared the first sanctuary in Mihinthale, which is also the first of sanctuary in the world.
As I suggest the best method for conservation of Sri Lankan bio diversity EASL are…
A look towards Sri Lanka …
Although our ancestors lived in the forest, now we are outsiders to the forest. We live in cities and we try to implement our theoretical or less-intense practical knowledge of conservation (we may call it as conservation) in a forest about 100 miles far away. Nevertheless, we must understand that these forests, trees, animals and water was there for more than 3 million known years of history, and with settlements of mankind more than 50000 years. Also around 500 BC years, there were large civilizations in Dry Zone Sri Lanka. Those people had been used the ecosystems in a sustainable manner for millennia. The policy makers (especially in several government departments and authorities) should at least understand that first we have to protect the people who live in and love forest. Because those forest-associated people are familiar with the forest with their birth and it is their livelihood. People, who born in cities and draft documents sitting on an AC rooms, perhaps like us, cannot “truly” understand the long lasting bound of countrymen to the nature with their livelihood. We cannot sustain the sustainability, without letting the people who “truly” live and love forest to use the forest and its contents. We only know the sustainability by theories. Nevertheless, they traditionally knew and practiced it for millennia by birth.
So avoiding forest-associated communities’ access to the forest is not an intellectual approach for conservation. Intervention of some unnecessary practices, as does by some government authorities, accomplished as conservation strategies is a total befuddlement. Such practices have despondently caused for the degrading of traditional knowledge, extinction of large number of Sri Lankan crop varieties and mainly burst out the strong bound of Sinhalese people with nature. The corollary is only conflicts. The entire system will collapse. However, most of us unaware that the “human need forest – the forest need human”.
Although, most of present (modern?) people have not certainly understand this serious situation since they are blind with some modern economic oriented methods for conservation. Especially, those troubles have been destroyed the Sri Lankan culture and its values ruthlessly, and preceded genocide. With the primary definition of the economics (The condition of a region or group as regards material prosperity), short-term economic goals of few corporate have pulled the community to destroy the forest and the most of people who really cared for the forest are sweep out from the society. Present geopolitics and international influence on the island have been created many barriers for the sustainability of the country. Our natural resources are vanishing to fulfill their wicked purpose, which was precisely initiated with the colonial invasion of Portuguese, Dutch and especially British savage; this screed has to be discussed for hundreds of pages.
Conservation should be a dynamic process. We must use the environment while conserving it. We cannot keep restrictions like this belongs to this government department or that belongs to that authority. Further, we cannot conserve anything by making huge fences around the forest and making it is inaccessible to both man and animal. The mother earth made us all to live together. Everything made by the Mother Earth is connected with each other; dew drops or water, sand or soil, trees or animals, human or air we cannot separate anything from the system. All of them were born by seeds sown by our mother earth. We cannot keep separately this water from the soil, or forest from animal and human.
Some conservation practices are appropriate only for the temperate countries, or sometimes only for tropical countries. Therefore, we cannot use a mixture of that. What was the best practice is, the practice what forest-associated people accomplish. That is inherited for the particular land for years, most often not for an entire continent or entire district.
The modern economy has destroyed the mentality of the original conservation from the peoples’ mind. A huge demand has grown over the natural resources such as wild meat, sand, water or timber. The gluttonous consumption of forest resources is continuously raised by the city. Consequently, most of borrowed outsiders to the forests, or sometimes people from the forest-associated community are used to exploit natural resources. Most often politics, policy makers, diplomats or administrators are purposely countenance it. Then the rules and regulations made to restrict the use of forest to the associated community, but seemingly above top head administrators violate rules covetously.
The term “conservation” introduced and scientifically taught for several decades in the globe. Do we find any overall success?