Severe destruction in many areas:

Need to protect biodiversity stressed

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Secretary to the Environment Ministry, M.A.R.D. Jayatilleke valued the importance of protecting the country's biodiversity and said that in addition to natural diasters, man-made threats have led to severe destruction of valuable biodiversity in some parts of the country.

He made these observations at a workshop held in Colombo last week to mark the `International Year of Biodiversity- 2010'. The workshop was organised by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) under the patronage of its Country Representative Dr. Ranjith Mahindapala.

Jayatilleke said biodiversity is a valuable asset to any country and it is the responsibility of all to protect it.

He said biodiversity, described as the variety of all living organisms, including humans, fauna and flora, is essential for the well-being of our planet.

He said Sri Lanka is considered as one of the biodiversity `hotspots' in the world and one of the biologically richer countries in the Asian region.

IUCN senior official, Vimukthi Weeratunga said Sri Lanka is blessed with an exceptionally high diversity of fauna and flora which is not confined to species diversity, but covers a whole gamut of genetic and ecosystem diversity as well.

He said our country's endemic biodiversity is exceptionally high with 27 percent of the flowering plants, 84 percent of the amphibians, 50 percent of the reptiles, 54 percent of the fresh water fish, 85 percent of the land snails and 100 percent of the freshwater crabs in the country being endemic to the island.

Dr. D.J. Samarakoon spoke on `State of Sri Lanka's Coastal Ecosystems', while IUCN Country Representative Dr. Ranjith Mahindapala, Additional Secretary to the Ministry, W.M. Wijesooriya and IUCN, Asia Regional Coordinator Raquibul Amin also spoke.