PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT THROUGH A COMMUNITY CENTERED APPROACH EXPERIENCE OF DUNUVILAPITIY A AND RATHTOTAYAYA VILLAGES IN WASGOMUWA NATIONAL PARK

Abstract

Wasgomuwa National Park was initially declared as a Strict Nature Reservein 1938, and became a National Park with the commencement of theAccelerated Mahaweli Development Program in 1984. It possesses richdiversity of fauna and flora.

The average poverty level of the communities who are living close toWasgomuwa National Park is generally much higher than that of the nationalaverage. Lack of employment opportunities, land tenure insecurity, lowprices for agricultural and farm produce etc. have also contributed for thedepressed rural economy and poverty, which is directly linked with thedependency on park resources, causing rapid depletion of resource base.Therefore activities such as encroachments, cattle grazing, poaching,gemming, illicit tree felling is common. Human-elephant confrontations arealso severe near the southern boundary of the park. Dunuwilapitiya andRathtotayaya villages being located in this area are constantly subjected toelephant attacks.

Community Outreach concept which promotes proactive involvement ofbuffer zone communities in protected area management was used to addressthe issues of the communities in Dunuwilapitiya & Rathtotayaya villages. Byusing this community centered participatory approach, village actionplans/micro-plans for the two villages were formulated. Two new communitybased organizations (CBOs) were established as a result of the institutionalanalysis.

Provision has been made under the Protected Area Conservation Fund tofinance environment friendly livelihood improvement initiatives and projectsfocused on the reduction of dependency of park resources that are originatingthrough the micro-planning process. Community managed grassland of 70hais presently being developed by the villagers of Dunuwilapitiya while anirrigation canal rehabilitation project was also launched by the same community recently. The Rathtotayaya community is implementing anelectric fencing project as a measure to reduce human-elephant conflict. Acommunity based social monitoring system has also been introduced formonitoring progress of related activities.

With the introduction of the participatory development approach and thecommunity empowerment process, improved interaction between the parkmanagement and the community is evident while the dependency on parkresources is in the process of being reduced.