Bio-piracy still exists [January 19 2011]

Although the country has a tough legal cover to protect its biodiversity, still illegal activities persist due to lack of unity of law enforcement agencies that mandated to protect the nature, Director General of the Department of Wildlife Dr. Chandrawansa Pathiraja said.

Addressing the National Consultation Workshop ‘Linking up with South Asia’ he stressed the need of getting all the law enforcement agencies in the country to prevent bio-piracy.

“This is null if the biodiversity including wildlife is not conserved properly. Though we have a strong ordinance, which has amended many times in the past with a strong enforcement of the same, yet illegal activities persist,” he said.

The two-day workshop, which concluded yesterday, focused on Illegal Wildlife Trade, consisting of technical and interactive sessions providing a forum for the development of local programmes through networking, sharing and effective dissemination of knowledge and information.

Basil Rajapaksha, The Ministers Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa and the Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka participated at the workshop.