Deforestation is one of the most serious environmental issues in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's current forest cover as of 2017 was 29.7%.Sri Lanka UN-REDD (2017). Sri Lanka's Forest Reference Level submission to the UNFCCC. In the 1920s, the island had a 49 percent forest cover but by 2005 this had fallen by approximately 26 percent. (29.40% in 2018) or 24-35%. Between 1990 and 2000, Sri Lanka lost an average of 26,800 ha of forests per year. This amounts to an average annual deforestation rate of 1.14%. Between 2000 and 2005 the rate accelerated to 1.43% per annum. However, with a long history of policy and laws towards environmental protection, deforestation rates of primary cover have decreased 35% since the end of the 1990s thanks to a strong history of conservation measures. The problem of deforestation in Sri Lanka is not as significant in the southern mountainous regions as it is in northern and lowland southern Sri Lanka, largely due to the nature of environmental protection.
History Forest clearing in nearly all parts of the dry zone can be traced back to Sri Lanka's hydraulic civilization, (Anuradhapura and Polonaruwa Kingdom period) when the forest cover in catchment areas in the wet zone was preserved undisturbed. However the gradual shifting of the capitals of Sri Lanka towards the wet zone 18th century enabled re-establishment of the dry zone forests that contain many valuable timber species. During the colonial period, under the Portuguese, Dutch there was considerable exploitation of prized timber, such as Ebony, Calamander and Nedun for export to the Europe, while Chena cultivation began to proliferate in the dry zone.
After British Ceylon period they gained control of the whole island in 1815 too there was heavy exploitation of dry zone forest for timber, especially between 1830 and 1870. The wet mid country and mountain forests that had remained intact were cleared rapidly for plantations of coffee and later tea. The forests of the low country wet zone were cleared for rubber and forests of the low and mid country wet zone and the intermediate zone were cleared for coconut. Even so, the close canopy natural forests stood at 80% in 1881.
Lter, with Sri Lanka (Dominion of Ceylon) rapid urbanization and steady population growth in the 1970s, mostly Sirimavo Bandaranaike's region, infrastructure projects destroyed forest areas. The construction of dams, road networks and the expansion of urban areas to meet the demands of a growing population have led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest.
The Civil War in Sri Lanka arose from ethnic tensions between the Sinhala people and the Tamil minority. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam also known LTTE stopped cutting trees in the areas they occupied because the trees provided them with leaves that allowed them to practice guerilla warfare. In response, the opposition - the national government - levelled forests in the hope of increasing the visibility if LTTE fighters. Large-scale cuts for this particular reason continued for decades until 2009.
Since then, growing population pressure has resulted in extensive deforestation to provide land for agriculture settlements and other development activates, and timber for construction and other uses. The timber exploitation and shifting cultivation have been particularly severe in the dry zone. To compound these problems, the forest policy in the mid-1960s was geared to harvest large quantities of the timber from natural forests in the belief that this was viable practice while maintaining an adequate protective forests cover in the island. This plan lead to the establishment of two large-scale play wood factories, a saw mill, and the State Timber Cooperation, facilitating the implementation of the decision to log 47,500 hectares of wet zone forests, including the Sinharaja and Kaneliya-Dediyagala-Nakiyadeniya (KDN) complex forests to feed that factories. Widespread public protest and a reorientation of forest policy in the early 1980s halted the logging in wet zone forests. This was followed by a moratorium on logging in the wet zone forests in 1988, which continues to be in force to date.
Causes and impact
The forests in Sri Lanka have been removed to make way for agricultural land and plantations and to provide fuel and timber. The sale of timber is a part of the national economy to raise revenue. The country is a major producer of tea and the land required for tea plantations is substantial. Population pressure is also a significant factor as is the removal of forested areas to make way for irrigation networks and paddy fields which was major process in the 1980s.Address of Warige Wanniya to the UN, vedda.org Retrieved 4-12-2015Sri Lanka's Indigenous Wanniya-laeto: A Case History, vedda.org Retrieved 4-12-2015
Large scale agricultural and settlement schemes without the recognition given for wild animal habitats and their migration patterns have been a major driver of deforestation and degradation, particularly in the dry zone, during the last century. Planted crops, such as sugar cane, banana, maize and paddy, in an unplanned manner, have led to ever-increasing human-elephant conflicts. Such schemes have led to drastic loss of habitats food access to water sources and migratory routes of the elephant, the largest herbivore having equally large home rangers. In addition, the increased vulnerability of wild elephants, now numbering around 6,000 to poaching has intensified the human-elephant conflict.
Riverine forests, often located outside the designated area network, are among the prime targets for modern-day agricultural development. If these forests could be conserved and maintained properly, they could serve as excellent wildlife corridors linking refugial forest fragments. Forest in the seasonal wet zone and intermediate zone have been either clear-felled for cash-crop agriculture or degraded, due to timber extraction or planting cardamom by removing the undergrowth. The remaining forests are too small, fragmented and isolated leading to their genetic impoverishment. Such forest contribute to the increased population density of the range of wildlife species which have now become pest species in agriculture fields. This has led to considerable crop losses and further to aggravated human-wildlife conflicts.
Mangrove forests and littoral woodlands have been cleared for settlements prawn farming and fire wood collection. This has accelerated sea erosion, salt water intrusion and land degradation.
Anthropogenic fires, particularly in savanna forests and grasslands, have led to the systematic degradation of forest habitats facilitating the spread of invasive species and consequently affecting natural regeneration of native species. Forest die-back observed in montane forests may lead to major changes in forest structure, composition and reduction in biodiversity.
Although laws and regulations have been enacted in recent times to address most of these issues, the views of the relevant implementing agencies are not always adequately consulted during major development initiatives. It is also regrettable that even the well-meaning suggestions of the conservation minded public are often over for the period from 2000 to 2005 is estimated to be about 29,800 ha at an annual deforestation rate of 1.5%.
Effects Aside from the environmental implications deforestation in Sri Lanka has caused flooding, landslides and soil erosion from exposure of the deforested areas. It is also the primary threat to the survival of Sri Lanka's biodiversity. Sri Lanka has 751 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles of which 21.7% are endemic, and over 3314 species of vascular plants, of which 26.9% are endemic.
Tree cover extent and loss Global Forest Watch publishes annual estimates of tree cover loss and 2000 tree cover extent derived from time-series analysis of Landsat satellite imagery in the Global Forest Change dataset. In this framework, tree cover refers to vegetation taller than 5 m (including natural forests and tree plantations), and tree cover loss is defined as the complete removal of tree cover canopy for a given year, regardless of cause.
For Sri Lanka, country statistics report cumulative tree cover loss of from 2001 to 2024 (about 5.9% of its 2000 tree cover area). For tree cover density greater than 30%, country statistics report a 2000 tree cover extent of . The charts and table below display this data. In simple terms, the annual loss number is the area where tree cover disappeared in that year, and the extent number shows what remains of the 2000 tree cover baseline after subtracting cumulative loss. Forest regrowth is not included in the dataset.
+ Annual tree cover extent and loss Year Tree cover extent (km2) Annual tree cover loss (km2) 2001 39,361.58 37.59 2002 39,327.31 34.27 2003 39,295.82 31.49 2004 39,239.83 55.99 2005 39,193.01 46.82 2006 39,115.71 77.30 2007 39,013.28 102.43 2008 38,948.28 65.00 2009 38,808.54 139.74 2010 38,736.22 72.32 2011 38,588.85 147.37 2012 38,444.57 144.28 2013 38,365.04 79.53 2014 38,241.54 123.50 2015 38,167.52 74.02 2016 37,992.62 174.90 2017 37,861.97 130.65 2018 37,730.36 131.61 2019 37,627.28 103.08 2020 37,515.12 112.16 2021 37,382.15 132.97 2022 37,298.04 84.11 2023 37,180.84 117.20 2024 37,063.08 117.76
Forest conservation Conservation of the environment is enshrined in the constitution of Sri Lanka and the state has pledged to protect, preserve and improve the enduement for the benefit for the community. At present, about 14% of the total land area of the island is managed for conservation purposes. The department of Forest Conservation manage about 50% of the island's natural vegetation. All activities in forests administered by it are governed by the Nation Forest Policy of 1995 and associated ordinances and enactments. the balance 45% is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Wildlife Conservation; all these forests are governed primarily by the Flora and Fauna Protection ordinance of 1937 and its subsequent revisions. However, the Land Reform Commission and the state Plantation Corporation and other plantation companies administer 25% of natural forests that are bordering tea, rubber and coconut plantations. +Department of Wild Life Conservation Department of Forest ConservationReserve Type (Number) Extent (km2)Reserve Type (Number)Extent (km2) Strict Natural Reserves (3)315.75Forest Reserves (366)6,123.96National Parks (20)5,261.56Conservation forests including Mangroves (65)918.59Natural Reserves (5)570.56National Heritage Wilderness areas (1)111.27Sanctuaries (61)3,491.05World Heritage Sites (2)350.1Jungle Corridors (1)87.77International Biosphere Reserves (3)437.68 The distribution of the protected area between two government agencies is rather disproportionate. The majority of the small-sized yet biodiversity rich, wet zone forests are administered by the Forest Department. On the other hand, the large-sized forests, with comparatively less biodiversity within the intermediate and dry zones are vested with the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Among the internationally recognized forests of Sri Lanka Sinharaja low land and lower montane rain forest has been recognized for its outstanding universal value and hence has been declared as a Natural World Heritage Site and an International Man and Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Subsequently the Kanneliya-Nakiyadeniya-Dediyagala and the Biosphere Reserves for their exceptional biodiversity. The most recent inclusion to the prestigious list of Natural World Heritage Site is the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, which include the Peak Wilderness Protected area, Horton Plains Natural Reserve and the wetland sites (Bundala, Kumana, ..)that are important for bird migration and conservation have been listed as internationally recognized RAMSAR site under the RAMSAR Convention on wetlands.