De-Gazetting Nature Reserves: What We Stand To Lose

By Amayaa Wijesinghe –APRIL 24, 2018

Amayaa Wijesinghe

Sri Lanka can boast of a diverse coastline, which is ecologically and economically valuable. Our shores provide livelihoods to many people, and act as our first line of defense in case of natural disasters. The fisheries they support also act as an important source of nutrition. When a natural ecosystem provides invaluable services to people as well as fauna and flora, it is afforded protected status. The efficient management of these Protected Areas (PAs) ensures that these benefits can be sustained for generations to come. 

Gazetting of Wedithalathive Nature Reserve

Wedithalathive is a small town situated on the coast, accessed by the Mannar-Jaffna A32 highway. On 25 February 2016, Wedithalathive’s ecosystems were given legal protection by its declaration as a Nature Reserve under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance. This was carried out just 2 years ago by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, and gave protection to mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs situated in the area. These natural ecosystems have been recognized worldwide for their importance in maintaining ocean productivity. 

Proposed Aquaculture Park

According to the Environmental Foundation Limited (EFL) as well as published sources, a cabinet paper has been prepared to excise and de-gazette approximately 1000 hectares of land from this newly declared reserve, in order to establish a commercial Aquaculture park. The paper was co-proposed by both the Minister of Fisheries and the Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife, with the recommendation from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management. The proposed Aquapark is slated to yield a commercial harvest of fish and shellfish, especially prawns, for export. 

This raises many red flags, as pond-based prawn farming has not been a success story in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia. In fact, a closer look at the area just South of Wedithalathive, in Puttalam and Mundal, show large tracts of prawn farms abandoned in the last 30 years due to disease outbreaks and unsustainable practices. 

In an Aquapark, the landscape is created for artificial breeding of economically important fishery species. Land units are leased to aquaculture farmers, and these units include purpose built ponds and facilities for seawater take and discharge. The park should also have wet-laboratories and hatcheries, intensive culture facilities, and dry-laboratories, for quality assurance and updated research purposes. Overall, stringent scientific standards must be met if an Aquapark is to be successful.

However, in practice, the execution of such projects is difficult due to the complex variables that need to be considered, and de-gazetting Protected Areas for such commercial ventures is a dangerous precedent to set, as the impacts may outweigh the benefits. 

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