Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees
The Japanese practice of Shinrin Yoku or forest bathing, is now used as a de-stress practice in many western countries. The idea is to be in a forest, preferably alone, just sit…
Environment
Human–Elephant Conflict: Lessons Not Learnt
In 1949, a year after Sri Lanka gained independence, a Committee on the Preservation of Wildlife (Sessional paper XIX – 1949) recommended that when development takes place, elephants living in the proposed…
Saving Sinharaja: Many Layers of Protection But Threats Continue
Sinharaja’s conservation status is of “significant concern”. According to the World Heritage Outlook, published by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Sinharaja has been assessed in 2020 as a World Heritage…
Saving Sinharaja: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Sinharaja Rainforest has been in the public eye for a few weeks now. Is it being threatened by encroachment and development? Will it lose its UNESCO World Heritage status? Are there…
Preserving and Protecting Precious Water Sources
World Water Day 2021, at the start of a critical decade for climate action and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), opens with an outcry by stakeholders about the impacts of ongoing rampant deforestation…
Where Journalists Self-abduct and Ecocide is Green
To mark the Global Climate Action Day, the youth wing of the Wild Life and Nature Protection Society put up a massive mural decrying ecocide. The President’s environmental-loving soul was lacerated by…
When Crying in the Wilderness is Just Not Enough
“Knowledge is power: You hear it all the time but knowledge is not power. It’s only potential power. It only becomes power when we apply it and use it.” Jim Kwik These are…
Environment, Development and Farmers’ Struggle in Walsapugala
These are some of the ideas that were heard recently from various parties in the dialogues and debates on environment and development. The essence of these expressions is the notion that the…
Conservation of Sri Lanka’s Iconic Pair of Land Mammals
Although Sri Lanka is a richly biodiverse island and is accordingly famed for its wildlife abundance, its varied eco-systems spread throughout the island, two land mammals in particular have achieved an iconic…
Obliterating the Future by Committing Ecocide
Oxford Languages Every day in Sri Lanka, newspapers, television and social media platforms cite examples of ecocide, a terrible crime that spells doom to the future of all life, human and otherwise….
Geneva and Other Fateful Trysts
The Defence Secretary is shocked, outraged, and flummoxed. The National Security Council has discussed the ongoing environmental devastation. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men (airmen too) have been mobilised…
Committing Ecocide: The Desecration of a Green and Pleasant Land
Whenever President Gotabaya Rajapaksa embarks on a “discussion with the villagers” visit, Sri Lanka’s environmental defenders shudder in anticipation of yet another verbal executive order resulting in the destruction of more trees,…
Other State Forests and the Conservation of Sri Lanka’s Rainforest Biota
Circular MWFC/1/20201 issued on 4 November by the Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Conservation has caused widespread concern and consternation. This circular seeks to make all Sri Lanka’s other state forests (OSFs)…
Four Million Different Solutions to the Problems of Staying Alive
David Attenborough Forest conservation is primarily about the survival of people, of us, as a species, of protecting ourselves from the detrimental consequences of our own actions. Yet we seem to be…
Sri Lanka Set to Lose More Forests
Environmentalists are up in arms once again as the government withdrew two circulars that protected 700,000 hectares of forests, which are now in danger of being destroyed so that the land could…