According to the report issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, deforestation in Sri Lanka has decreased to 0.4 per cent during the past decade, Conservator General of Forests Anura Sathurusinghe said yesterday.

Mr. Sathurusinghe told the Daily Mirror that the FAO report, issued every five years, has rated Sri Lanka as a country with less deforestation during the period of years 2000 – 2010. “During the past decade (2000-2010), the deforestation in the country has decreased to 58, 791 hectares of forest land, which was rated as 1.3 per cent as against 104, 380 hectares during the period 1990 – 2000. At present the FAO has rated Sri Lanka as a country with minimum forest cover,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said they had decided to launch an web portal to detect the places where deforestation was prevalent around the country. “The website will be launched in the coming month. Any person who has information of deforestation taking place in their areas can inform us so that we can investigate it,” he said, adding this would help immeasurably to control deforestation in the country. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)