News
Forest and Wildlife departments face acute staff shortage
View(s):By Sandun Jayawardana
The Department of Forest Conservation (DFC) and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), the two premier agencies tasked with protecting the country’s natural habitat, are facing severe impediments owing to a deficit of human resources.
The 2023 performance reports of the two agencies, which were recently tabled in Parliament, indicate that both departments are facing enormous challenges due to inadequate numbers of personnel.
According to the DFC’s performance report, although number of approved cadre for the Department as of December 31 last year was 3,229, a total of 617 of these positions remained vacant. The shortage of personnel is felt from the topmost ranks downwards, with 49 of the 89 senior slots of Deputy and Assistant Forest Officers remaining vacant.
The shortage of senior personnel had “a profound effect on the policy making, inter-ministerial coordination and sustainability of the Department,” the report notes.
Further, 26 vacancies existed in the tertiary level, 291 at secondary level and 251 at primary level. The shortage of minor staff has made it difficult to perform daily functions of the department efficiently while protection of forests and reforested areas has also become a problem, the report notes.
Lack of personnel has also hit the DWC hard, and it is cited as one of the impediments towards minimising the human-elephant conflict in the Department’s 2023 performance report.
Although the DWC had an approved cadre of 2,891, only 1,914 of these positions were filled, leaving 977 vacancies. Again, the shortage of staff is felt from the topmost positions, with 37 of the 85 senior positions remaining vacant. Of the 18 positions at the tertiary level, 14 were vacant. There were 782 and 144 vacancies at the secondary and primary level, respectively.
The DWC has observed that it has not been able to assign officers to every workstation island-wide owing to the shortage of staff.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!