Biodiversity: Hotspot gets hotter

Poaching and Game-keeping see an uptick as forest fire season moves in, despite efforts to stop these illegal activities

With media reports filled with accounts of human-wildlife conflicts, rampant deforestation and increased poaching, the wilderness of Sri Lanka is undoubtedly under great threat.   

Poaching and wildlife trafficking are one of the biggest illegal businesses worldwide, with a total worth between seven and twenty three billion USD per year according to a widely-cited 2014 UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) report. 

 
Sri Lanka too is a lucrative target for poachers because of its biodiversity hotspot with a wealth of endemic species.   

The pandemic and the country’s serious financial crisis have also contributed to the worsening of the situation, especially over the past two years.   

Recently, the forest fire season began in Sri Lanka which results in poachers and forest encroachers starting fires, flushing out animals and killing or capturing them. 

Most of the forests fall under the Department of Wildlife Conservation’s management, but with the fuel shortage, this retarded their ability to respond quickly.   

‘Our people are used to poaching’
The Department of Wildlife Conservation spoke to Daily Mirror on this issue and said that there would normally be a certain amount of poaching incidents happening annually in Sri Lanka.   

For such incidents, the department of wildlife conservation has taken the necessary actions that are required. They mentioned that the department officials would continuously go on security tours and constantly keep an eye out for illegal activities.   

The DWC said that whenever such poaching incidents happen, they would make sure to arrest those perpetrators, produce them to the courts and give them the necessary fines and penalties. They mentioned that during dry seasons, hunting and poaching would normally increase, and when this happens, they give special attention to this issue through actions such as engaging more employees for security tours.   

When asked about the actions they have taken to spread awareness on this issue, the DWC claimed that under the Flora and Fauna Protection Ordinance, hunting, displaying, selling and transporting wild animals is prohibited.   
Therefore they believe that the general public should know not to engage in those illegal trades.   
If they break these laws, the Department of Wildlife Conservation has the power to take legal action against them including monetary fines and imprisonment.   

“Sri Lanka is a lucrative target for poachers because of its biodiversity hotspot”

“Our people are used to poaching and Game meat which is the reason why poaching happens like this in our country. So there’s only a little growth or reduction when it comes to this issue.” the DWC told the Daily Mirror.   
We should focus on the bigger picture when it comes to game-keeping

Different countries use different strategies that work for them in order to deal with these issues. Likewise, the DWC said that they use their own strategies which are best for the country in order to control poaching and explained that this has proven effective for the country so far. The DWC stressed that preventing poaching is one of their main objectives amidst all other challenges.   

Director of Operations at the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Ranjan Marasingha joined a lecture at the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society last week to discuss wildlife conservation plans and their challenges.   
Marasingha highlighted that wildlife management is the process of influencing interactions among and between wildlife, its habitats and people to achieve predefined impacts. It attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best available science.   

Marasingha explained that the components of wildlife management are wildlife conservation, game-keeping and pest/invasive control. “Wildlife conservation is comfortable for all of us, but game-keeping is fishy,” he said.   
While wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats, game-keeping is the management or control of wildlife for the well-being of the game and may include the killing of other animals to maintain a high population of more important species.   

“With leopards, we want to do that,” he said.   

“With Covid-19 and halted tourism, non-farmers are left with no choice but to go back to poaching”

Marsingha explained that this is when they want to increase the number of more important species, and those species are selected by them. He emphasised that in wildlife and biodiversity conservation or management, we need to look at species and their interactions, not the individuals. But Marasingha noted that the trend nowadays is to focus on individual animals which results in losing focus on the bigger picture.   

Development in the tourism industry may help prevent poaching
Poaching itself can be divided into two groups namely, subsistence poachers and commercial poachers. Subsistence poachers hunt small game for food or supplementary income. Commercial poachers are after bush meat or other animal products such as leopard skin or elephant tusks. According to the Sri Lankan Youth Climate Action Network (SLYCAN) Trust, commercial poaching is a relatively smaller problem but not insignificant in Sri Lanka. As Covid-19 and the curfew have brought tourism to a halt, non-farmers often find themselves with zero income and zero employment options, leaving them no choice but to go back to poaching, cutting trees and illegal breweries.   

“Wildlife conservation is comfortable, but gamekeeping is fishy”

The SYLCAN Trust also noted that in many areas around Sri Lanka’s national parks, tourism has recently replaced poaching as a major source of livelihood. Instead of hunting and selling wildlife, hunters are now safari drivers, tour guides or staff at 
guest houses.   

Likewise, experiences across the island show that subsistence poachers can turn away from poaching when presented with alternative livelihood options. The SLYCAN Trust pointed out that if the tourism sector manages to recover after the first wave of the pandemic, there is great potential to expand sustainable wildlife tourism and transform the relationship between local communities and the surrounding wildlife.   

“The government should declare wildlife conservation an essential service”

Rukshan Jayawardene, a conservationist with the Colombo-based NGO Environmental Foundation Limited (EFL) said that the DWC should be fighting to get more funds and that the government should declare wildlife conservation an essential service to provide the required resources, as some of the lost natural resources would be irreplaceable.