Managing Arid Areas and Sand Dunes in Sri Lanka - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 319

4 Main Forms of Land Degradation

Environmentalists have predicted that Sri Lanka will face severe drought and
desertification within the next few years. Drying up of water springs, soil erosion,
potential for landslides, loss of soil fertility will be among the harmful effects of
this. Climate change would only make matters worse. There is now recognition
that the magnitude of the problem caused by land degradation is much greater than
previously realized and also that there are multiple benefits of implementing the
Convention to Combat Desertification, Sri Lanka signed the convention in 1995 and
ratified it on 14th October 1998 Sri Lanka has aligned itself with other member
countries of the Convention to prevent land degradation and combat Desertification.
The Minister of Forestry and Environment (MoFE), is host to the national focal
point of the implementation of UNCCD and Sri Lanka is combating desertification
in line with its National Action Program (NAP) as required by the Convention to
Combat Desertification (CCD).
Sri Lanka being predominantly an agricultural country, land erosion is rampant
where soil conservation is not practiced. Pronounced erosion is also seen along
major roads and forest clearings for settlements where the erosion problem has not
been adequately addressed. Gem mining activities carried out in river beds, banks
and upland areas lead directly to soil erosion.
The main forms of land degradation are soil erosion; water-logging, pesticide
accumulation in the soil, groundwater and surface water bodies; land degradation
due to extraction of raw materials for the ceramic and cement industry; industrial
pollutants discharged into agricultural land, gem stone mining, sand mining, brick
and tile clay extraction. No detailed survey has been carried out to quantify
land degradation in Sri Lanka. Technologies have been proposed largely in the
agricultural sector. In Sri Lanka terracing and bunding are the orthodox methods
of practical soil conservation in both dry and wet zones (Fig. 16.4 ). Windbreaks
have been established in certain areas. There is no proper mechanism to implement
the remedial measures proposed by the technocrats (Box 16.1 ) Study and research
is carried out in the public sector. There are few scientists and a lack of both
laboratory and field facilities. Detailed data for proper scientific land use planning
is lacking. As some of the processes and factors affecting land use change with
time, a continuous program of or regular updating of data is necessary. Although
most data for planning at a national scale is available data on regional scale is
scarce. Data on soil, land and land use has been generated in the Land Use Division
of the Irrigation Department and is available only for four districts out of 22.
There is no proper infrastructure for land use planning. No organization has overall
controlling authority. There are many agencies with some responsibility (Box 16.1 ).
The scientific task of land use planning as to be conducted by a scientific department
of land use planning but there is a great deficiency of resources and trained personnel
(Table 16.1 ).