Economic development should blend with nature -Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

Sri Lanka has developed the right policies to protect bio diversity but their implementation is not taking place properly, said environmentalist Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya. He was delivering the keynote speech at a seminar on Sustainable Bio Diversity and Economic Development organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in Colombo last week.

Dr. Pilapitiya said thatsome environment issues created by major development projects such as the Mattala Air port, reports on plans to relocate elephants from the Commonwealth Games site in Hambantota, construction of a road across the Wilpattu national park and construction of hotels in protected areas demonstrate this inconsistency of policies and practice.

The Department of Wild Life Conservation and the Department of Forestry are under two different ministries. In the Mahinda Chintana policy statement it was clearly stated that they should be under one ministry. This has created issues in implementing environment policies.

He also said that the private sector too has a responsibility to invest in conservation of bio diversity, especially if government investment is not sufficient. Industries such as hotels that are selling nature have a greater responsibility in this regard, he said.

The following are excerpts from his speech on Sustainable Bio diversity and its Economic Value.

Global scenario

The earth's bio diversity is under severe threat and extinction rates of species over the past hundred years have been several hundred times. If the situation continues, future extinction rates will be ten times higher.

Since 1980 global forest cover has declined by about 225 million ha and a size similar to that of Bangladesh is being lost annually.

Loss of bio diversity is a crisis that threatens human beings. The earth's bio diversity is crucial to human well-being because it has important functions. It provides us commodities such as food, fresh water and fuel, and carries out regulating functions such as climate and disease regulation and water purification. It has cultural functions aesthetic, spiritual, educational and recreational.

The estimated value of these ecosystem services is around $ 33 trillion/year, which is twice the global GNP. The cost of loss of bio diversity is massive. Loss of topsoil due to deforestation can reduce rice output by 1.5 million tons a year, an amount that would feed up to 15 million people an year.

Tropical forest loss is currently responsible for about 1/5th of all human carbon emissions which leads to global warming. If not lost, it could absorb emissions from the entire global transportation sector.

This destruction continues under the name of economic development. There is a perception that environmentalists are anti-development oriented. This is not true and environmentalists are more pro-development than most others because they strive for development that is sustainable.

Sustainable development looks beyond the private costs and benefits of the immediate user of the natural resource and looks at social costs and benefits to society as a whole.

Sri Lankan scenario

The world's first nature sanctuary was in ancient Sri Lanka headed by king Devanampiyatissa. Development in ancient Sri Lanka was based on an environmental impact assessment. Our forefathers lived in the Dry Zone and they did not encroach the wet zone. They protected watersheds because they realised their value. The Wet Zone opened during colonialisation.

More recently, constitutional guarantees and national policies on environmental conservation were adopted. Sri Lanka is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Sri Lanka is the first country in Asia that prepared a National Environmental Action Plan in 1992. The Mahinda Chintana economic policy of the government clearly states the need of development in harmony with nature.

However, in practice unsustainable development programs can be seen everywhere. Prawn farms in the North Western coast is a classic example. Environmentalists warned that if the industry grew at an unsustainable scale it would collapse. The industry is now ruined. Filling of wetlands in metropolitan Colombo is another example where policy makers did not listen to environmental concerns.

During the rainy season half of Colombo city is under water and billions of rupees have to be spent to arrest the situation. Land alienation for sugarcane cultivationin the Moneragala district has caused human-elephant conflict.

This does not mean that we should not necessarily have implemented such development projects. But land use should be better planned and development options should be compatible with the natural resource base. As the government has already accepted, the only Millenium Development Goal (MDG) Sri Lanka is not on track to meet is MDG 7 ensuring environmental sustainability.

Natural resource based development

Sri Lanka has the highest bio diversity per unit area in Asia and is a global bio diversity hot spot. Bio diversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services of a country represent a capital asset. Value of watersheds in Sri Lanka is over $40 million/year. However, we have not considered these when making development plans.

Protected Areas (PAs)

Extensive human activity in the peripheries of the PA network (including the buffer zones) are threatening long-term survival of the PA network and the bio diversity it contains. Expansion of the PA network may not be possible. The latest advances in conservation looks at a landscape approach to preserve tropical forests and bio diversity.

The PA is situated within the larger landscape so that PAs can meet both conservation goals and human needs. The conservation landscape outside PAs are developed with activities compatible with management of the ecosystem.

Development is not only achieved through mega/large scale infrastructure projects. A community's development, a significant improvement in their quality of life is another aspect of development.

Development that is incompatible with the surrounding ecosystem is unsustainable. Sri Lanka's development should aim for conservation landscapes based on natural resources.

Conservation tourism

Sri Lanka is the best location for charismatic species outside Africa. Yala and Wilpattu are the best places in the world to see leopards; Minneriya, Kaudulla and Uda Walawe to view large herds of Asian Elephants; Mirissa, Kalpitiya and Trinco for blue and sperm whales.

Sri Lanka is the only place in the world where one can see the largest sea mammal (the whale) in the morning and see the largest land mammal (the elephant) in the same afternoon.

Development and bio diversity conservation go hand in hand to ensure sustainable economic development. Although the government's commitment to promote conservation tourism is commendable it has not taken the right path.

The focus of Sri Lanka Tourism is on the number of visitors and not on the quality of the experience. The government will promote construction of hotels in buffer zones of PAs and additional bungalows within the National Parks.

These policies are contrary to sustainable conservation tourism. These are not what the conservation tourists want. A survey conducted by interviewing international visitors to PAs (Yala, Uda Walawe, Minneriya, Bundala and Sinharaja) confirm that high satisfaction with the wildlife experience and dissatisfaction with the poor quality of guides, over crowding of parks and traffic congestion in the parks.

Conservation tourists are willing to pay 60 percent more as entrance fees if the quality of the experience improves. We should aim for high value added, low impact tourism.

Surveys show that currently "non-package" tourists visiting National Parks spend more than double compared with the regular "package tourists".

Accommodation facilities should be low impact and tented safari camping and eco-friendly resorts in forests should be outside the buffer zones. The number of tourists entering these sensitive ecosystems should always remain below capacity.

Landscapes surrounding PAs are a part of an ecologically sensitive ecosystem. Therefore, development projects in such areas should be sensitive to the ecosystem and be within its carrying capacity. Extra investment in "greening" infrastructure in sensitive ecosystems is needed (such as smart green infrastructure in tiger conservation landscapes). Identification of land for development should take the land's ecosystem service value into consideration.

Landscapes with elephants

According to studies 2/3 of the elephants are outside the PA network. Thestrategy of "driving" and "translocating" elephants from development areas into PAs have been tried for over 50 years and has failed. If not the human-elephant conflict should be under control by now.

Erecting electric fences on the administrative boundaries of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) has served only as boundary markers for DWC as they have not been boundaries for elephants.

Sri Lanka does not have a strategy for elephant conservation and only respond to Human-Elephant Conflicts (HEC) on an ad-hoc basis, largely driven by political demands.

A paradigm shift needed

The Asian Elephant is Sri Lanka's flagship species. Elephant conservation is important from an ecological perspective because they are considered an 'umbrella species'. Their conservation protects a large number of other species occupying the same area. Elephant viewing is also an economic asset. In the management of HEC the elephant's needs should also be taken into account and not only the human's needs.

Developer's responsibilities

Development projects in elephant landscapes should not only 'ring fence' their projects from elephants. These development projects result in driving elephants into conflict with humans due to a reduction in the elephant range. Development costs should include mitigation measures for affected communities. This should be a part of the project development costs in elephant landscapes.

The government's responsibility is to ensure the project developer (be it public or private) is responsible for HEC mitigation arising as a result of the project.

A National Policy on Wild Elephant Conservation has been developed and approved by the Cabinet in 2006. Strong coordination is vital between DWC and the Forestry Department to implement it.