CHANGING LAND USES AND RAPID DECLINE OF FOREST COVER THE ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Sri Lanka provides a classic example for rapid tropical deforestation. Just over a period of;1 century. its forest cover has been reduced to a quarter of what it used to he.Consequences of this degradation process have been discussed widely. However, littleattention was directed to identify the causes and nature of this process in detailed manner.Therefore this paper attempts to identify and discuss some of the important causal factorsresponsible for decline of the forest cover in the country. The main objective of thisexercise is to derive useful policy implications that arc important for sustainablemanagement of forest resources .

A wide variety of factors could be identified as causal factors of this trend. Broadly, theyGill be catcgoriscd as physical and socio-economic factors. The paper direct its attentionmainly towards socio-economic factors associated with agricultural development efforts ofthe country.

The history of deforestation was traced in relation to the historical evolution of policiesresponsible for expansion of agricultural land uses in the country. Emergence ofcompeting uses for forestlands and other economic activities were reviewed comparatively,giving attention to development priorities of different time periods. Simultaneously, itdraws from variety of sources on demographic and socio-economic development of thecountry too. The factors that arc important in national and local scales also werediscussed.

Rased on the above exercise. some policy implications were derived. They arc discussed inthe context of priorities of the forest policy identified by the Forestry Sector master Plan(1995). Some rccomrncnd.uions also were made based on the findings of the study.