Forestry Property Rights
Sri Lanka is rich in natural resources. They are forest cover, coastal ecosystems, inland water bodies, fauna and flora and geological resources such as minerals and gems. There should be a balance between development and natural resource management. Increasing population, urbanisation and development of infrastructure will demand more forest lands to be cleared. Unless there is a clear allocation of ownership, political influence and bribes will result in disappearance of forest lands.
It is important to manage forests in a sustainable manner, allowing sufficient consumption while ensuring renewal of forest cover by replanting at a rate to match the consumption.
The total forest cover of Sri Lanka has declined gradually from 31.23% in 1992 to 28.74% in 2010.
Non-timber goods and services from forests include medicinal plants, rattan, bamboo, products of hunting, products of kithul palm (Caryotaurens), edible plants, mushrooms, honey and pine resin. These goods provide livelihood to the communities living in the fringes of forest lands. If forests are cleared for timber and colonisation, these communities will loose their livelihood.
In Sri Lanka, commercial extraction of timber from protected forests is prohibited. Forests are protected by the Forests Conservation Ordinance of 1885. Clearing of forests for timber extraction is an offence. Political influence and bribes find loopholes in the legal system and get their way in clearing forest lands. A proper legal system should control illegal extraction of timber or the unsustainable harvesting of forest resources.
Department of Forestry, Department of Wildlife Divisional Secretariat Office and Ministry of Resettlement are three major institutions that manage forestry property in Sri Lanka.
Presently in colonisation process, private land titles are mostly given to people. However, these land titles do not reflect clear characteristics of private property rights. Instead they are permits issued by local government authorities. This results in lack of motivation for those have the land to plant timber products that have a significant demand, thereby increasing economic productivity and at the same time helping to maintain the ecosystem. Therefore giving full ownership to the holders of the land will result in a win-win situation.
There are two ways of developing forestry plantation sector. People or companies can invest in the land and then plant trees and sell the trees once they reach maturity. There is an increasing emergence of private ventures in forestry plantation.
The other approach, for companies or individuals, is to invest in the land lot owned by the government where people can only own the timber trees and they will be responsible for replanting at the rate of harvest.
Another emerging opportunity is forest based eco-tourism. This has proven to be useful in sustainable forest resource management in Sri Lanka. In this approach the forest land is privately owned by the operator of the eco-tourism venture and managed in such a way that it preserves the bio-diversity of the environment. Eco-tourism method has proven to be more sustainable in managing forest resources than the usual way of managing forests by government institutions.
