forestation programmes group 5

Forestation Programme

Srilanka is among the world’s most impoverished nations, with a significant young population (48% under the age of 20) entering into their working life and in need of employment. Escalating demand for, and pressures on, land and natural resources from increasing population growth (approximately 1.53%), rapidly rising unemployment, internal migration, and developments in infrastructure and other economic sectors, combined with legislation that is not fully formed and weakly enforced, exposes our forests to unsustainable exploitation and leads to conflicts over rights of access and use. Nonetheless, Srilanka has succeeded in maintaining varied and extensive forests covering more than 10.8 thousand hectares, including plantations and bamboo. They contain biologically unique landscapes and areas of significant cultural heritage, and are potentially highly productive. Furthermore, Srilanka forests are intimately linked to agriculture and in-land fisheries, and to maintaining the sustainability and productivity of both these sectors. Services provided by forest ecosystems include regulation of local water-circulation, mitigation of droughts and floods, and reduction of waterway sedimentation. Forests are, therefore, a key factor in national development, and their sustainable use could provide considerable benefit to our country and her people. Opportunities are arising in international markets for processed and high-value forest products along side potential markets for carbon sequestration. Novel, innovative forms of financing are emerging through ‘payment for environmental services’ for conservation of forest resources and biodiversity. The majority of our rural population are subsistence farmers, 75% of these, as well as landless families, depend on access to natural forest resources for essential products, energy and food, particularly in times of hardship. Forests also provide household opportunities for diversification, supplementary income, and employment created by forest product-based enterprises. It is a challenging task to achieve a balance between economic development and broader community benefits from forests and environmental protection, but one which we cannot afford to ignore. Well managed, equitably developed renewable forest resources can form the basis for a profitable modern economic sector while still maintaining or even expanding their ecosystem functions, biodiversity and ecological variation.

While the forests have substantially provided the basis for rural livelihoods they have also been a source of conflict and exploitation. During the 1980s, the triple-party Government used the forests for cover, and its resources to finance their activities. This  version of our National Forest Programme (2010-2029) considers changing conditions for our forests and society and our role in the global context. It provides strategic directions that place governance at the heart of sustainable forest management and increasing forest contributions to national development objectives.

Benefits of the Afforestation:

Increased Employment:

In Afforestation work, approximately eighty per cent of the total amount of expenditure is incurred on account of wages on such works as soil digging, sowing, weeding etc. which is done mostly by landless and otherwise very poor laborers. A part of the increased population of the next few decades might well be absorbed in the fields of employment that will be opened as a result of availability of vast amounts of raw material. Here against the avenues of employment will mostly benefit the poor and middle class people.

Creation of an Economic Capital:

 The extensive Afforestation will not only provide direct employment of lakhs of poor people as indicated above but will create a permanent capital of immense value. The increased Afforestation envisaged in the plan when completed is likely to more than double the output of timber.

Increased Food and Fodder Production: 

To the unwary it may appear suppressing how rising of forests will increase the food production. It will also provide grazing facilities and solve the problem of fodder for cattle.

Avenues of Cottage Industry:

The vast amount of raw material that will be available from the increased forests will open up unlimited scope for a number of cottage industries such as furniture, sports goods, match industry, wood carryings, basket making, pencil making, hand-made paper industry, house building etc.

Regulation of Streams, Rivers and Underground Water:

One of the greatest needs of the time is to control and regulate such forces of nature as rain and wind to the best advantage of man. The role of forests in cushioning the beating rain, the intercepting a part of the precipitation and conserving it and releasing it gradually through the springs, needs no further elucidation

Increasing Longevity of Dams and Reservoirs:

The extensive forests that will be raised over the catchment areas of the rivers on which great dams and reservoirs are being built will prevent the erosion of the top soil to a great extent and thereby the silting up of the beds of impounded lakes will be greatly reduced. By reducing the velocity of rushing rain waters, the wooded lands constitute the best insurance against denudations, devastating floods, disappearance of springs and silting up of the beds of reservoirs, canals and rivers. So important is the role of vegetation over the catchment area of our river systems that their proper afforestation must precede every irrigation project.

Disadvantages of Afforestation

1. It comes with real opportunity costs.
One potentially huge drawback of afforestation is the simple fact that it comes with real opportunity cost, where the transformed lands can no longer be used residential developments and agriculture that are highly beneficial to the society through more supply of food and housing for those who need them.

2. It can affect biodiversity.
Under poor management, this method can result in a reduction of biodiversity in the local ecosystem; introduction of potentially invasive and non-native species; modification of particular biomes; reduced stream flow; and loss of agricultural revenue. As you can see, native grasslands that are converted into forests might not be able to contain the same habitat for local species. Also, mismanaged reforestation efforts could result in the production of a monoculture that lacks plant diversity and lessens the number of available habitats for inhabitants of the forest.

3. It can bring some problems of ecotourism. 
If the purpose of afforestation is ecotourism, it may be subject to potential problems that come with ecotourism, such as littering and harm to wildlife.

While you can see the process of afforestation as a positive one, offering a lot of benefits to both the environment and society, it is also accompanied by the fact that it can also bring about some drawbacks. By assessing its advantages and disadvantages, you will be able to build a well-informed opinion on whether it is good for the world as a whole, or not.