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Preparation of a Country Environmental Profile for Sri Lanka for European Union (EU) Sri Lanka economic cooperation
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S.W. Newman* and D.M.S.H.K. Ranasinghe**
* School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds L 52 9JT UK
** Department of Forestry & Environmental Science, University of Sri
Jayewardenepura
Full Paper Part 1
| Part 2 | Part 3
Methodology adopted
The approach taken in compiling the profile included literature
review, a field trip to the East and the North (Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee,
Vavuniya and Jaffna) and a participatory workshop on environmental potentials
for Sri Lanka 2006-2013. The field trip consisted of meeting with all government
agents and the North East Provincial Council. The assessment attempted to
deliver the following results;
? An assessment of the environment identifying key environmental factors
influencing the Country’s development and the responses to these
? An assessment of national environmental policy and legislation, institutional
structures and capacity and the involvement of civil society in environmental
issues
? An assessment of past and anticipated future trends of environmental indicators
? An overview of past and ongoing international cooperation in the environmental
sector
? Recommendations and as far as possible guidelines or criteria for mainstreaming
environmental concerns in priority development areas
Results
Critical environmental issues as per the MDG targets
The Table 2 shows the progress made with regard to environmental
targets according to the views obtained from the stakeholder workshop which
had representations from both Government, Non government and Private Sector.
The MDG targets were set taking 1990 as the baseline. Further, this was
supplemented by the existing reports and observations made during many field
visits including the Tsunami affected areas in North and East.
Table 2:
Results of the observations and views of the stakeholder workshop on the
country’s position in meeting the MDG targets
Environmental Policy, Strategy and Legislation
The need for clear overarching environmental action plans and policy aimed
at addressing environmental issues has been clear to the government since
the early 1980’s. National Environmental Action Plans (NEAP) have
been in place since 1992. The third and last NEAP was for the period 1998-2001.
National Environmental Legislation
There appears to be a very high number of acts and ordinances to do with
rational management of natural resources and the environment. In discussions
with Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MENR) the only act which
appeared to require high priority further development was concerned with
soil conservation.
The stakeholder workshop involved an assessment of the adequacy of policy
in relation to the key environmental issues. The analysis of the adequacy
of policy and law was based upon its effectiveness in dealing with the problem,
which in turn requires adequate monitoring and enforcement along with the
involvement and compliance of the private sector The results are shown below
in Table 3 with the percentage of yes answers
Table 3: The
results on the status of the effectiveness of the environment policies and
laws in Sri Lanka
The main conclusion is that enforcement is the main problem and to a lesser
extent monitoring. It is clear that there is a role for the private sector
in terms of environmental improvement of business operations and helping
to set enforceable regulations. Forestry as a sector has had large donor
support. Perhaps this is reflected in the comparatively high scores that
the issue obtained
in policy, law, monitoring and enforcement. Drinking water monitoring had
a reasonably high score.
There does appear to be good public participation in the drafting of laws.
The free press is a good vehicle for this. There is less participation in
the drafting of national policy. There appears to be a long way to go in
terms of the influence of village level plans on divisional and district
level actions.
International Environmental Legislation
Sri Lanka has signed and ratified many international treaties,
policies and laws too. Most of this is straightforward apart from the convention
on biological diversity which requires a very high level of coordination
between several ministries. Based on the information procured the following
analysis and recommendations were arrived at which is shown in Table 4.
Table 4: Recommendations made by various international treaties and conventions
to the private sector and their level of progress made.
| 2001 recommendations
to the private sector |
Impressions
of progress by 2005 and suggestions |
| Make
concessionary finance available to smallholder farmers |
Still
problems of threshold |
| Encourage
private sector investment in forest plantations |
Limited |
| Formulate
a policy to promote private sector investment in renewable energy
projects |
Very
limited with problems of low prices paid for selling electricity to
the grid |
| Issue
environmental licenses through certified private licensed institutions |
Limited |
| Establish
a fund to finance private sector investment in environmental management
activities/projects |
Limited |
| Encourage
private sector involvement in environmental insurance and financial
guarantee activities |
Limited |
| Make
privatisation programme environmentally compatible |
Limited |
| Institute
environmental entrepreneur of the year awards |
Achieved |
| Involve
community organisations in land alienation decisions |
Limited |
Spatial integrated planning
There are marked differences in the density of poverty, ethnicity, and livelihood
across the country. There are also marked differences in agro-ecological
environment and across the country. In order to improve perception of the
role of environment in sectoral development and the links with poverty production
and economic group, it is essential to develop an environmental (sustainable)
development zone approach. This is currently absent. The following method
was used to develop a zonal approach based upon literature analysis, expert
consultation, and testing at the workshop:
• The tsunami zone is distinct in its environmental problems and potentials,
available funds through new political structures and livelihood opportunities
• The municipality or dense urban zone is distinct in its environmental
problems and potentials, type of poverty, and potentials for business development
• The coastal non-tsunami zone is distinct in its environmental problems
and potentials and has varied livelihood potentials and political structures
• The high potential zone has the greatest availability of water biodiversity
and plantation industry yet has poverty at high density levels
• The double crop paddy zone has a good agricultural base with minor
and major irrigation activities
• The remaining low population and low rainfall zone has relatively
low population and therefore poverty density has low production potential
but high potential for extensive extractive reserves and agroforestry.
The table 5 shows
some of the key features of this zone, key environmental potentials and
key strategic approaches to poverty alleviation.
The Table 6 shows the activities which can be enhanced in the above zones;
Table 6: The activities which can be enhanced in the
above divided zones
Conclusions and Recommendations
1. The country strategy for EC funding should be guided by the environmental
development zone approach in order to maximise impact and sustainability
in poverty reduction and economic cooperation as per Table 6.
2. Environmental concerns should be mainstreamed into development thinking
through four approaches; environment considered as a business opportunity,
by recognizing that MDG Goal 7 has key indicators of judicious environmental
development, by establishing an environmental development strategy for international
and national public and private partnerships in functionally important development
zones, by approaching poverty reduction through a livelihood approach.
3. Any programme or project in the tsunami zone should have an environmental
assessment.
4. The housing, road and energy sectors could have the highest impact on
poverty elimination linked to the creation of new environmental opportunities
5. Economic cooperation between Europe and Sri Lanka should focus on environmental
business and social enterprise and be guided by a study of win:win:win business
partnership models
6. Any area development project should consider organisational development
and delegated management approaches rather than purely increasing government
“capacity”. Monitoring the constraint to environmental business
and environmental business partnerships should be a central part of design.
7. An environmental assessment should be carried out as soon as possible
as many tsunami rehabilitation interventions are and will have significant
negative impact. Tsunami recovery in most areas will take between 5 and
10 years given current rates of progress
8. On a Regional perspective, the tsunami condition on Asia wide programs
should be extended for five years
9. Links between Asia and European environmental business in building, roads,
solid waste/sanitation and energy should be a priority and research partnerships
in these areas should be encouraged.
References
Arjuna’s Atlas of Sri Lanka.
Bioenergy Association of Sri Lanka (2005) The Dendro Option for Future Energy
Security of Sri Lanka. Information Note.
Central Bank of Sri Lanka (2004) Annual Report
Central Environmental Authority (1995) Index to Environmental Legislation
in Sri Lanka: 1-35
Coast Conservation Department (2003) Revised Coastal Zone Management Plan,
Sri Lanka 2003
Department of Census and Statistics in Sri Lanka (2003) Statistical Abstract:
1-445
Green Network of Sri Lanka (2002) People’s Report on Sustainable Development
in Sri Lanka: 1-97
IUCN (2003) Wetland Conservation in Sri Lanka, Proceedings of the National
Symposium on Wetland Conservation and Management, June 19-20, 20003: 1-75
Ministry of Finance and Planning (2005) Sri Lanka New Development Strategy,
Framework for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction.
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (2001) State of the Environment,
Sri Lanka 2001: 1-106
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (2002) State of the Environment
in Sri Lanka, A National Report Prepared for the South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation, 2002: 1-245
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (1999) Conservation of Biological
Diversity in Sri Lanka, A Framework for Action: 121
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (2003) Caring for the Environment
2003 – 2007 – Path to Sustainable Development: 1-152
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (2002) Sri Lanka’s Middle
Path to Sustainable Development in the 21st Century, National Report of
Sri Lanka to the World Summit on Sustainable Development: 1-84
Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation (2003) Current Issues
by Sector: 1-311
Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Forestry (1995) Sri Lanka Forestry Sector
Master Plan: 1-508
National Science Foundation (2000) Natural Resources of Sri Lanka 2000:
1-306
Ranasinghe, D.M.S.H.K. and Huxley, P.A. (1996) Agroforestry for Sustainable
Development in Sri Lanka, University of Wales, UK: 1-275
UNESCO (1997) Footprints of Our Heritage, Sri Lanka National Commission
for UNESCO, Isurupaya, Battaramulla: 1-181
UNDP (2004) Millennium Development Goals – Ensuring Environmental
Sustainability (prepared by Hemanthi Ranasinghe and S.T. De Silva): 1- 164.