Managing Arid Areas and Sand Dunes in Sri Lanka

Synopsis

This chapter analyzes the land degradation situation in Sri Lanka. It reviews the principal causes of land degradation and the response of government. These responses include legislative reform, administrative and institutional restructuring and implementation of projects to rehabilitate degraded lands.

Key Points

• Sri Lanka was once a heavily forested island. Over the past century its closed canopy forest cover has dwindled rapidly to less than 23 %. In the 1900s it was reported that the forest cover is near 90 % of the total land. Historically, much of the loss was attributed to creation of plantations of tea, rubber, coconut and other crops during colonial times. Recently, settlement schemes to provide livelihood of landless poor, slash and burn for agriculture, encroachment for cultivation, village expansion due to population growth, forest fire and other development activities have contributed to the decline of the island’s natural forest cover. Deforestation on steep slopes of watersheds and removal of grass and other protective cover both in the wet zone and in the slash and burn cultivation areas of the dry zone leads to severe soil erosion.

• Growing pressure is being placed by people on the land resources. This has caused increasing land degradation which remains a critical constraint on sustainable development of the land resources of the country The man:land ratio is about 0.36 ha, though net per caput land availability is only about 0.15 ha. The remaining 0.21 ha per person is not readily available, because it is either designated for conservation or has topographical or ecological constraints. Approximately 35 % of the country is under agricultural usage and about 31 % under forest or wildlife conservation areas. The remaining 34 % is under tea cultivation, pasture, patana grass (Chrysopogon zeylanicus) and urban uses.

• A concerted effort is now being made to formulate land use policies and a land use plan. Many organizations in Sri Lanka are responsible for guiding land use related enterprises. The major responsibility lies with the Ministry of Lands, Irrigation and Mahaweli Development, which includes decisions on state lands not already allocated to other institutions. The Land Commission, Forest Department, Department of Wildlife, and Irrigation Department are the major departments under this ministry dealing with land matters. The Soil Conservation Division of the Department of Agriculture is the authority for implementing the provisions of the Soil Conservation Act. The Ministry of Plantation Industries is responsible for the development and control of plantation agriculture in the private sector. The Rubber Control Department and Tea Commissioner’s Division are involved in new plantations and re-plantation schemes and have a control on conservation measures The Ministry of Coconut Industries handles enterprises related to coconut cultivation and industry.