- Sri Lankan environmentalists are bracing themselves for the toll on environment and biodiversity conservation that the country’s deepening economic meltdown will have.
- The Department of Wildlife Conservation has to ration fuel when it can for its patrol cars, while its revenue from national park tourism has evaporated.
- Experts warn that rising food prices and other essentials could lead to a rise in environmental crimes like illegal logging for firewood, poaching of meat, and sand miner’s robbery.
- The crisis could also threaten to undo hard-earned gains, and undermine future commitments, like programs on emissions reduction, ending forest destruction, and achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
All over Sri Lanka, vehicles are queuing up in long lines for what’s left of the high-priced fuel in beleaguered gas stations. A few SUVs from the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), are among them, and they are waiting for their turn.
They will wait three to four hours before they can get their turn at pump. If they are lucky, there may still be fuel left, but it will be rationed. They will most likely have to return on fumes.
These rangers are part of the millions of Sri Lankans living with the problem. Their job is to patrol Sri Lanka’s national park. Worst economic crisisSince 1948, the country has been independent. Fuel is scarce, hours-long power outages are a daily occurrence, prices for food and other essentials have soared, and fuel is in short supply
The Department of Wildlife Conservation is now faced with the difficult decision of having to reduce its patrols due to uncertainty over when it can refill its vehicles next.
While we do our best to keep patrolling the protected areas of the country’s territory, we can’t help but feel helpless when there is a fuel shortage in the country. Chandana SooriyabandaraThe head of DWC. It is currently rationing fuel for its personnel. Sooriyabandara said that we are trying our best to use our funds to keep it going.
DWC’s revenues come mainly from tourist receipts at its various national parks. The fuel shortage has meant that visitor numbers have declined, as well as Sri Lanka’s wider tourist sector.
Research takes a backseat
Research and conservation activities are often the first to be cut in an economic crisis. The government conservation agencies will soon feel pressure to abandon this vital work. Sarath Kotagama is an emeritus professor of ecology and former director-general of DWC.
Kotagama expressed concern that opportunism could increase as conservation agencies have to reduce their monitoring and operations, leading to increased land grabs and other illegal activity.
Hyper-inflation is also likely to drive more people into desperate actions to survive, according to Hemantha withanage, an environmental scientist and conservationist who founded the Centre for Environmental Justice.CEJ), an NGO.
People will seek additional income sources and disregard nature. He said that many people may look to natural resources. As a result, poaching, sand mining and forest clearing will rise rapidly.
Mongabay was told by Withanage that the economic crisis did not happen overnight. It had been built over many years due to corruption, mismanagement and poor financial discipline.
He said that Sri Lanka’s environment has been under severe pressure over the past two years. These crises were often imposed by politicians. To stop the importation some crops, such as corn, the government released large amounts of forest land for agricultural purposes. Proposed projects were seriously flawed.
Withanage stated that one of these was the transfer non-protected forests, also known as other state forests.OSF), to regional authorities. He said that although the stated goal of this initiative was to increase agriculture and develop, it came at a significant price to the environment.
Withanage predicted that the situation will get worse as the economy continues to deteriorate and natural resource theft will rise.
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Rohan Pethiyagoda a taxonomist, naturalist, and former deputy chair of The Economic Crisis, stated that the economic crisis will also have an impact on environmental safeguards, such as environment impacts assessments. IUCNs Species Survival Commission.
Pethiyagoda explained to Mongabay that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), process for future power plants won’t be as rigorous as it was in the past because of our need for electricity. With the increase in firewood use, there will be a decrease in deforestation.
Neglect environmental gains
Ananda Mallawatantri is the head of the IUCN Sri Lanka office. She said that the economic crisis could undermine some of the environmental achievements Sri Lanka has worked so hard to achieve. These include standards on energy efficiency, air quality, programs related the country’s emissions reduction goals, and its post-2030 biodiversity pledges, and many others.
These priorities will no more be on the priority agenda, and some achievements may even be reversed. Mongabay was informed by Mallawatantri that our goals and priorities could shift dramatically.
However, as we say in disaster-management, we have the potential to build things better if you stay focused and find a distant silver thread in the dark cloud.
Eric Wickremanayake is the chair of Environmental Foundation Limited (EFLPublic interest litigation and environmental group (PILE) stated that Sri Lanka could benefit by issuing “blue and green bonds” sovereign debt linked to marine or terrestrial conservation programs as part a debt-restructuring plan. Sri Lanka has made several commitments to environmental protection covenants, as well as the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The country recently committed to declaring 30% of its waters protected, and has signed up for the Bonn Challenge on ending deforestation. It also pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement.
These can all be used to negotiate blue- and green-based debt restructuring, Wickremanayake explained to Mongabay.
Environment experts say that Sri Lanka is facing an economic crisis and that conservation must be a priority. This would cause the country to lose hard-earned benefits and make it more difficult to solve its environmental problems over the long term.
This article wasFirst publishedMongabay.com
Banner imageIllegal logging will increase because of the shortage in liquefied petroleum gasoline for cooking. Photo taken from the DWCs Ape Pituwa page.
