SOME THOUGHTS ON FUTURE OF OTHER STATE FORESTS IN SRI LANKA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31357/fesympo.v0i0.1346Abstract
The agricultural frontier in the country has been expanding in recent years, primarilythrough the alienation and leasing out of large extents of forested state land to landlesspersons and also through encroachments. The remaining unutilized state lands also carryforests, and the demand for agricultural land in the future will have to be met by selectingfrom these areas, lands that are best suited for agricultural development.
State land available for agriculture and other development purposes are currentlydesignated as Other State Forests (OSF). A part of the OSF is under the jurisdiction of theConservator of Forests and a part under the Divisional Secretaries. Much of this land inthe Wet Zone has either been distributed or encroached upon and hence the bulk of theOSF is to be found in the Dry and Intermediate Zones. The forest cover on these landshave been denuded because of widespread chena cultivation and therefore what remainstoday is sparse forest.
As population increases, the demand for land from various users will increase and thisdemand will have to be met by the OSF. It is therefore very essential that all of the OSF inthe country are evaluated and divided into different land use categories. Initially, landssuitable for forestry should be separated and devoted exclusively to forestry development.The balance area will represent the lands available for other uses.
The paper is in two parts. Part I will examine the need for catergorising OSF. Part II willpresents a methodology for categorising these lands based on 2 case studies undertaken inthe Anuradhapura and Ratnapura districts.
