Sunday, June 19, 2011

Forest Cover

Initiative to arrest receding forest cover

 

By Franklin R. Satyapalan

The government has embarked on a multi-pronged program to arrest the dwindling forest cover in the country which has reduced from 40% of land area at the time of independence to a shocking 20% to 21% at present, official sources said yesterday.

Chief Conservator of Forests H.M.P.Hitisekera said a program to visit schools countrywide to create an awareness among school children that dwindling forest cover is one of the main causes for natural disasters in the country, has been launched. "We hope to educate them from an early age not only to plant trees but to protect and care for them as well."

As the climate in Moneragala and several other districts are suited for growing rubber trees we are getting the community involved in planting saplings," he said.

We have also started a program to increase the natural forest cover in the upcountry plantations by getting the community involved in planting Pinus trees as a measure to halt soil erosion," Hitisekera said.

The Special Task Force is also involved in tree planting and the conservation of forests cover in the Amparai district, he said.

"We are also distributing plants with commercial value such as teak, nadun, mahagony, satin with plots of state land that had gone barren in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts, to village communities, he said.

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