Cancellation of 05/2001 and 02/2006 circulars Forest, DWC lands now come under purview of Land Commissioner General-Wildlife secy

• Environmentalists question Govt. on requirement to utilise forest lands
• Forest cover calculated exempting other State Forests

By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe

Upon cancellation of the 05/2001 and 02/2006 circulars that managed Other State Forests, lands coming under the purview of the Forest and Wildlife Conservation Departments will now come under the purview of the Land Commissioner General.  

Speaking at a press briefing, Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Conservation Secretary Bandula Harischandra said that according to the Lands and State Lands Ordinances, lands exempted from any law or gazette anyway was under the purview of the Land Commissioner General. “The 05/98 circular that includes specific number of acres of lands coming under Forest Department was cancelled by the 05/2001 circular. Under the 05/2001 circular, Other State Forests were managed by the District Secretaries. Therefore they too had the authority to execute legal provisions mentioned in the Flora and Fauna Protection Ordinance (FFPO). A further amendment to this circular was the 02/2006 circular which stated that lands that do not belong to the Forest Department to be vested under District Secretaries. With that we identified several issues emerging from these circulars.”  

According to Harischandra, Sri Lanka has a forest cover of only 29.2% but it should be increased to 30-31% in another 3 years. “The forest cover has been taken into account, exempting those in other state forests. Even though we issued a new circular that too includes several limitations. If someone wants to utilise other state forests for an economic or productive purpose, a District level committee has to be appointed, approval should be sought from district land officers and the report has to be sent to the inter-ministerial committee in Colombo for approval,” he added.  

The circular further states that while Other State Forests could be utilised for economic and productive uses while keeping ownership with the government itself, Conservation Forests managed by the Forest Department, reserve forests, proposed forest reserves and national reserves managed by the DWC, sanctuaries, wild elephant management reserves and other forests do not belong to a government department, agency or ministry dealing with environment though a certain law, regulation or any other circumstance should be excluded.   

Apart from that, there will be no hindrance on decisions taken hitherto by Divisional Land Use Committees, District Land Use Committees and Inter-Ministerial Land Use Committees as well as decisions given by courts. The circular will also not become a hindrance to Forest Project Development and for the protection of identified environmentally sensitive lands with mountain slopes exceeding 30 degrees of steepness.   

According to the new circular, sensitive land areas including rivers and streams, areas with higher gradients, catchment areas, elephant corridors, areas with historical, cultural or archaeological value, areas to be conserved in order to protect endangered flora and fauna should be excluded from being used for economic or any other purposes.   

However, Rainforest Protectors convener Jayantha Wijesinghe questioned who would look into the environmental conservation aspect in these areas once they commence projects. “There’s no mechanism to ensure environmental conservation in these areas. If the government has a requirement to use these lands they should specifically mention it. Besides they should have firstly carried out a Strategic Environmental Impact Analysis prior to issuing the circular.” 

• There will be no hindrance on decisions taken hitherto by Divisional  Land Use Committees, District Land Use Committees and Inter-Ministerial  Land Use Committees and decisions given by courts