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Rules a mockery in Ramsar wetlands, report finds
Prawn farming was rampant in Sri Lanka’s globally-recognised Ramsar wetlands despite local authorities claiming no permits had been issued after 2018, an expert committee investigating the destruction of a section of the Anawilundawa sanctuary said.
These wetlands are designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental environmental treaty established by UNESCO in the Seventies. By 2018, Sri Lanka had six out of 2,331 Ramsar wetlands worldwide, including Anawilundawa.
The committee, appointed by Wildlife and Forest Conservation Minister C.B. Ratanayake, said due attention had not been paid to illegal activities in a sanctuary like Anawilundawa. It was problematic that area inhabitants had insufficient knowledge about wetlands.
Alarmingly, there were only three officials from the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) and two from the Civil Defence Force to monitor an area as large as Anawilundawa, the committee said. The DWC has said it had insufficient resources to allocate more personnel.
There have been three wildfires within Ramsar wetlands this year alone, the committee observed.
Fertiliser and pesticide chemicals from agriculture were also problems, along with severe plastic and polythene pollution.
It was possible to regulate the actions of people living inside the sanctuary under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, the committee admonishes.
The destruction of the sanctuary had occurred because government agencies had not acted in time, the report says. This was because the new prawn farm had gone unnoticed as there were around 50 others previously built in the area.
The committee does not explain how a backhoe could have been used to clear mangroves for the new prawn farm without the authorities noticing it. Action was spurred only after news of the clearing broke on social media.
The committee noted that the images circulated on social media gave the public an exaggerated picture of the extent of damage.
The backhoe clearing began at 5.30 pm on August 25 and continued into the next day with breaks. The driver was also the machine owner.
The National Aquaculture Development Authority (NAQDA) says new prawn farm permits have not been issued for Anawilundawa since 2018. While farms had been active from time to time NAQDA claimed it had no authority to regulate.
Information from the Divisional Secretariat shows 135 acres of land in Anawilundawa were given out in 1986 on a 30-year lease to a company called C. C. Carson, which later abandoned the property but had paid its dues until the contract ended in 2016.
In 1997, 1,400 hectares was declared by the government to be a sanctuary. It included seven villages and the plot leased out to Carson. Nevertheless, human and business activity continued as usual. Once Carson abandoned its prawn farms, others ran them continuously until 2016.
A total of 51 prawn farms were allegedly run in the sanctuary within the period by 15 different parties. Among them was Jagath Samantha Perera, who allegedly contracted the backhoe last month to clear a section of the sanctuary. He had bred prawns in the disputed land with permits.
Between 2016 and 2020, the relevant Divisional Secretariat received applications to build more houses and start new prawn farms in the sanctuary. These were turned down as it was a Ramsar wetland.
The committee strongly recommends putting an end to prawn farming in wetlands and Ramsar areas. At a recent meeting with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, however, officials were reported to be suggesting there was potential to farm prawns among mangroves.
The report calls for: alternative livelihoods for the poor of the area; quicker scientific restoration of mangroves; increase of manpower for security; awareness programmes; use of Air Force as overseers.
There must be a team of officials from relevant government agencies for every protected area which will maintain a dialogue with local communities, the experts urge.
A mechanism to distribute information to the public in order to prevent exaggerations circulating on social media is another proposed task.
There must be an assessment of the environmental impact of economic activities and recommendations to sustainably continue them, and satellite images of these locations must be safely recorded and saved.
| Alleged kingpin goes missing, minions charged | |
| The two men arrested in relation to the destruction of mangroves in Anawilundawa – a backhoe driver and a businessman – were on Friday released on bail of Rs. 10 million each following three weeks in remand. The case will be taken up again in March next year. The committee inquiring into the incident found that Kurugamage Jagath Samantha Perera, the brother of State Minister for Rural and Divisional Drinking Water Supply Projects Development Sanath Nishantha, had given orders to clear the land for the prawn farm. Mr. Perera, who is the former chair and current member of the Arachchikattuwa Pradeshiya Sabha, did not appear in court. He has been evading police who are seeking to record his statement. Chilaw Magistrate Manjula Ratnayake instructed police to obtain an arrest warrant if the ongoing investigation connects Mr. Perera to the incident. The backhoe driver and businessman have both said they were following Mr. Perera’s orders. The backhoe driver’s statement says that, in 2015, Mr. Perera had an annual permit from NAQDA for eight prawn farms spanning five acres. |