Sinharaja - The Mother Forest

by Miran PERERA

Everyone owes gardeners because they do so much for the planet. While rain forests are being destroyed around the world gardeners are planting caring for and nurturing the earth in so many ways. If we can make our home gardens a small paradigm of our bigger rain forests even in our own way we would be raising national awareness and the need for national protection of our forests.

One of the largest forests is our country and which is being regarded as the mother of all our forests in Sinharaja. This forest is well worth a visit for anyone who is interested in the natural resources of this country. It has been declared a world heritage site because of its unique and high bio-diversity. Sinharaja is also a man and biosphere forest reserve and a large proportion of the flora in this forest is endemic to the country.

Comparatively some home gardens are used to grow popular and also rare plants and flowers. By such planting in gardens they help to purify the air and the green corridors they create support for insects, birds, reptiles and other animals. While most of our forests are being cut, our home gardeners are responsible for regeneration not degeneration of bio-diversity. Gardeners can make an impact simply by what they do in our own little homes.

A large proportion of the flora at Sinharaja is endemic to our country. Some species are endemic to the Sinharaja forest itself. Sinharaja also has many species of endemic fauna like the little birds and animals that visit our home gardens everyday. The tracks of land occupied by gardens had a positive environmental effect because they store carbon.

The enormity of the climate change problem means that anything good for the environment is welcome. Even the misleading message gardening waste water unlike forests such as Sinharaja has not deterred gardeners. We have just become smarter and more waterwise in our practices. As a rain forest with its rich and complex diversity of vegetation Sinharaja provides habitats for a variety of animals.

Although dependent on plants for food, animals also carry out certain functions vital to the growth of some plants. Pollination and seed dispersal are two of these. Sinharaja has the benefit of both monsoons. Rainfalls are regular during the South West monsoons, May - July the North East monsoons and November-January except February when the conditions are dry.

Similar to floors of rain forests, gardens act as carbon sinks, their numbers should be increasing rather than decreasing. Governments serious about alleviating the effects of climate change should be heavily subsidising water storage tanks for gardeners so they can maintain their lawns and garden beds. A water tank and water recycling units should be promoted in all new houses. the Sinharaja forest has two main forest types. One is the Dipterocarpus forests that occur in the valleys and on their lower slopes.

Here almost pure stands of Hora (Dipterocarpus Zeylaincus) and Bu Hora (Dipterocarpus Hispidus) can be seen. The other forest types is the secondary forest and scrub that now occurs where the original forest cover has been removed by shifting cultivation or other tree removal operations. In other places rubber and tea plantations have replaced the forests.

In Sri Lanka new home owners should be encouraged to create gardens rather than cover their backyards with paving tiles. Even lawns consume carbon dioxide. While home owners are encouraged by some to remove lawns and replace them with paving because lawns consume water it should be remembered that masonry prevents the exchange between living matter and the soil, as well as helping the environment gardening is character building.

Nature does not always do what you want to do so patience becomes an integral part of the gardening process. Sinharaja is the last extensive primary lowland tropical rain forest in Sri Lanka. It holds a large number of endemic species of plants and animals and a variety of plants of known benefit to man. The Sinharaja Forest reserve is the last viable remnant of Sri Lanka's tropical low and rain forest; over 60% of the trees are endemic and many of these are rare. There are endemic 21 bird species and a number of rare insects, reptiles and amphibians.

Endemism is high particularly for birds with 19 of 21 species endemic to Sri Lanka. Endemism among mammals and butterflies is also greater than 50%. Sinharaja has a complex vegetation structure. This is the same as man intricates the rain forest ecosystem. At first glance the forest seems to be a chaotic model of vegetation.

However, a closer look reveals that the vegetation can be categorised on the basis of several factors such as life forms.

Trees, shrubs, herbs and woody climbers) a strata or group of plants living under similar conditions of light and moisture with each group having its own lifestyle. In our homes, gardening is an art form and biodegradable. Our garden does not exist simply to please critics. It is a reflection of our desire for self expression.

It is our space and creativity and enhances our suburb for the benefit of those who live around us. Similar to rare medicinal plants at Sinharaja, home gardens are well known for their healing powers in plants and also when dealing with grief. Gardens help to lower stress levels which in turn leads to a calmer healthier society.

Modern gardeners are increasingly eco-gardeners storing and reusing water compositing, mulching avoiding chemicals and encouraging wild life and making it biodegradable. They are aware that some garden plants can become environmental weeds and they avoid them.

A recent newspoll commissioned by Nursery and Garden Industry Australia showed that gardeners want to maximise the positive effect they can have on the environment.

Ninety per cent of gardeners rated the sustainable environmentally friendly garden as the most appealing. Seventy per cent of gardeners want to grow their own vegetables. Growing your own vegetables and herbs even in a small way saves some energy as a large proportion of food is trucked around the country or across the globe. Growing our own also satisfies a deep urge to provide ourselves with the basis requirements of life. At the Sinharaja reserve to ensure its strict protection for scientific and aesthetic reasons a scheme of Zonation and management is proposed for areas outside the reserve.

The creation and propagation of essential forest products for sustained utilisation in areas outside the reserve is intended to meet local needs and thereby eliminate former dependence on resources within the reserve. Of the many constraints to the protection of Sinharaja encroaching cultivations are probably the biggest problems particularly along the Southern boundary.

The most important traditional minor forest products used are Kitul, Cane and to a lesser degree medicinal plants. The lack of a uniform land use policy and the multiplicity of governmental and semi governmental agencies involved in land use planing in Sri Lanka are the major administrative constraints in evolving a suitable protection plan for Sinharaja forest. Transactions related to land surrounding the reserve are suspended under Presidential orders. (This was some years ago)

Comparatively The Sinharaja forest and a home garden belongs to different dimensions. The Sinharaja Forest is rich in a variety of rare plants. As the proud owners of this natural Sri Lankan forest we are indebted to protect it, for its rare plants which we should strive to grow some of the smaller plants in our home gardens. Such special home gardens should be encouraged to be growing by those dwellers in the forest periphery and surrounding areas.

By growing plants that are utilised daily by them, they will not encroach the forest reserve for their needs, thus resolving a major problem.