Are you ready?

Doomsday is closer than you think:

by Sajitha Prematunge

Sri Lanka blue magpie

Dusky blue flycatcher

Serendib scops owl

Asanka’s shrub frog Pix: Vimukthi Weeratunga

Anuradhapura Orchid Pic: Dilup Chandranimal

Someone told me once that I should stay well away from the "Doomsday theory" when writing about environmental issues. Although this was meant well most people don't have the slightest idea that doomsday is closer than they really think.

The long awaited 2007 Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka was launched - after a lapse of almost eight years - on November 22 with the honoured presence of Patali Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Udaya Gammanpilla, Chairman, Central Environmental Authority and many other distinguished guests.

The Red List, based on a chain of researches spanning over three years, prove that the FUTURE of most Sri Lankan indigenous species of fauna and flora alike, is indeed BLEAK.

The 2007 Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka is a collaborative effort by IUCN - The World Conservation Union and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MOENR). The research was funded by the ADB through the Protected Area Management and Wildlife Conservation and Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Its primary goal is to identify and document the species most in need of conservation and provide an index of their state of biodiversity, using global Red List criteria adapted to the regional level. The Red list classifies species according to their risk of extinction, and the threatened species are divided in to three categories - Critically endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable.

Shiranee Yasaratne, Country Representative World Conservation said that the findings of the Red List would serve as the baseline for the development and implementation of suitable policies and actions to conserve threatened species for the future.

Bhathiya Kekulandala, Programme Officer IUCN, in a press briefing maintained that the previously compiled Red List could not be updated because a computerized version was never put together. But new data can now be directly uploaded to the new database, already in the custody of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

This database will be available to the public in the near future and will undoubtedly be a blessing for all researchers in the field of Environment. The 2007 Red List has many uses. It could be used for policy formulation and decision making, research, awareness creation and of course for monitoring purposes.

The theme of the 2007 Red List was 'On the way out' and for many of our indigenous species it's indeed the case.

In fact one in every two mammals, one in three reptiles, one in five birds and 675 species of plants are 'on their way out'. Research used for the compilation of The 2007 Red List, conducted along three categories - Inland vertebrate fauna, Inland invertebrate fauna and flowering plants, were based on hard scientific facts.

Among the endemic inland vertebrates in Sri Lanka, the highest number of threatened species was recorded among the reptiles. Thirty four (12%) inland vertebrates are critically endangered, that means they run a very high risk of becoming extinct in the wild if things do not change for the better soon.

These endemic species are what matters the most as explained by Dr. Channa Bambaradeniya, Coordinator Species Conservation Unit, IUCN - if they become extinct from Sri Lanka they would be lost to the rest of the world.

Among the Inland invertebrates the highest number of threatened species was recorded among butterflies. Among the 675 threatened plant species 412 species (61%) are endemic. About 37% are critically endangered. A higher number of threatened species are recorded from the orchid family.

The Geographical distribution of the threatened species show that most of the recorded species are prominent in Kandy, Ratnapura, Galle, Martara, Kalutara and Nuwara-Eliya districts. Most of the threatened fresh water fish species are restricted to rivers such as Nilwala, Kalu, Kelani, Gin and their tributaries.

Among these Kelani is extremely polluted and all the others are over exploited for gem and sand mining using harmful methods. The threatened fish species are also heavily exploited for commercial purposes.

All these species, plants and animals alike are in grave danger if habitat degradation is not reversed. Citizens of Colombo may have noticed that the purple faced leaf monkey has literary disappeared from Colombo.

It's clear that biodiversity degradation is interlinked with the development process. Habitat loss is one of the major issues that threaten species in the wild today. Sri Lanka's annual loss of forest cover is 33,000 hectares. But in the wet zone this is even higher. Wet land reclamation, siltation and dumping garbage in wet lands have caused rapid wet land degradation. Thereby risking the extinction of many wet land species.

Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka stated that Sri Lanka is found to be one of the ten countries, in South Asia with the highest consumption of agro-chemicals. And according to a study conducted by the ministry a death of an elephant is reported every two days and they are already 'on the way' to be locally extinct in the wet zone.

Over exploitation of species by way of poaching, human-wildlife conflict, road kills and commercial trade coupled with natural disasters add to the list of threats to these highly vulnerable and highly significant species.

So, you be the judge of how far Doomsday is.....

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