Wetlands: country’s lungs and kidneys are yet under threat

Beddagana Wetland 

Glossy Ibis, Jaffna - pic by Prof. Sevvandi Jayakody 

By Shanika Sriyananda

Wetlands, which are Sri Lanka’s lungs and kidneys, are still in a deteriorating state despite several measures taken to restore them from ‘vanishing and reducing’.

Especially the wetlands in Colombo, which purify the city water, cooling the air and helping to control floods are still under threat due to rapid development, poor solid waste management and rapid growth of invasive species.

The wetlands are also fondly called the ‘kidneys’ of cities as they filter waste and regulate water. 

This alarming situation was discussed by the experts in wetlands restoration at a lecture organised by the Nations Trust and Wildlife Nature Protection Society held to mark World Wetlands Day titled ‘Conserving Wetlands for a Common Future’.

The experts and young scientists shared their recent findings on wetlands restoration while advocating for evidence-based conservation, restoration, and sustainable use.

Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) Director of Protected Area Management Manjula Amararathna giving his thoughts under the theme ‘Right to survive: Wetlands and You’ discussed the provisions under Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (RCW), which is the intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resource. 

Being the National Focal Point for the RCW, he highlighted the importance of updating the Global Wetland Map which was done in 2004 but has not been updated yet due to lack of information on global wetland coverage. 

“In some countries, they have zero knowledge about their wetland coverage. The Ramsar Convention is also trying to collect information on global wetland coverage,” he said.

Work towards wise use of all wetlands

Amararathna explained about three pillars of the Convention which make contracting parties to be committed to work towards the wise use of all their wetlands, designate suitable wetlands for the list of Wetlands of International Importance and ensure their effective management and cooperate internationally on transboundary wetlands, shared wetland systems and shared species.

Sri Lanka, which declared its first Ramsar site as Bundala National Park, is among 172 countries which signed the Convention, in which 2,532 wetlands around the world have been designated as Ramsar sites.

Six sites – Bundala National Park, Anavilundawa Sanctuary, Maduganga Sanctuary, Kumana National Park, and Wilpattu National Park – with a total of 198.172 hectares have been declared as Ramsar sites in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the Chundikulum National Park, Veditalative Nature Reserve (Vankalai-Veditalative Complex), Adams Bridge National Park, Giants Tank Sanctuary and Muthurajawela Sanctuary will be declared as Ramsar sites in the future.

“Despite all efforts taken by the global community to protect wetland ecosystems, since 1970 to 2022 many species – marine and terrestrial – declined by 50%. Species dependent on inland water ecosystems are in perilous decline including a loss of 85% of freshwater species, migratory fishes by 81% and aquatic megafauna by 88% and overall decline of species is 73%,” he revealed. He said when considering the species composition in the Bundala National Park, it was changing rapidly and flocks of migratory flamingos was a frequent sight in the park but during the last decade none of these species could be seen there as it has turned into fresh water lagoons due to irrigation projects, mainly the Lunugamvehera and Veheragala projects – that resulted in salinity changes.  

“As authorities, we are taking several measures to conserve the country’s wetland ecosystems. We manage these wetlands with the help of the global community but still it is declining and need the support of all to conserve these resources,” he stressed.

The Forest Conservator General (FCG) Nishantha Edirisinghe explaining about ‘Wetlands and their Governance: Challenges and Solutions’, said Sri Lanka’s 103 rivers were wetlands while man-made tanks and paddy fields also play the role of wetlands in providing food, water and energy and there was a need of striking balance between those components.

“Otherwise, it will be difficult to manage wetlands and they are under threat,” he asserted, adding that although a series of protected areas safeguard the origins of rivers, a substantial area is under agriculture, mainly tea.

Water diversions slowly killing wetlands

“Wetlands are dynamic systems and water diversions are slowly killing the wetlands. Sri Lanka has changed the water flow in all key river basins and dams are preventing the movements of species and several kilometres of rivers are now running in tunnels,” he said.

According to FCG, around 23% of the total forest area is managed by FD and DWLC and those forest areas are protected as they provide a good environment for precipitation and interception and are less subjected to soil erosion and free of chemicals. 

“But 76% of land is under agriculture or settlements. They consist of a lot of chemicals, subjected to soil erosion and garbage accumulation,” he said, stressing the importance of protecting wetlands not only by the FD and DWLC but also the private sector and farmers.

Edirisinghe suggested addressing full ecological consequences of river diversions, which was yet unknown and revisit EIAs done for river diversions.

“We have found that even EIAs do not concern much about the effect on wetlands due to river diversions and project approving agencies should store data on one platform about wetlands,” he said suggesting to have biodiversity and environmental service database for project approving needs, monitoring and evaluation to have more people in the ground, Strategic Environmental Assessment for energy, irrigation, fisheries and agriculture. 

The FD Chief attributed forest fires as another major contributor to wetland water depletion. 

“These days there are many forest fire incidents reported due to the dry season and people deliberately make forest fires. No natural forest fires in Sri Lanka. Forest fires in mountains burn forest and grassland. Majority of grasslands are burnt because of forest fires. Grasslands play an important role as a water sink. But after they are burnt, water in these grasslands evaporates with the ground water as well,” he explained, citing invasive species as also threats to wetland ecosystems.

According to Edirisinghe, restoration of wetlands has some issues like infective methods such as removing sands from reservoir beds to restore wetlands.

He further said that conservation must be a priority even if it was challenging but should not be an opportunity to sacrifice another wetland and also to mine sand from river and reservoir beds.

He highlighted the urgent need of the country’s youth to get involved in wetland restoration to protect them for the future generation. 

Long-term restoration measures to maintain wetlands

DWLC Deputy Conservator of Forests Bharatha Dissanayake who did a restoration project in a mangrove wetland in Pubudugama, Puttlam presenting the positive outcome of restoring wetlands, highlighted the requirement of long-term restoration measures to maintain wetlands in the future.  

“After restoring the mangrove, we found some local fish breeds in the site and the density of flora species has also significantly changed during the year of restoration. The density was dependent on the weather conditions and the location with main canals and sub canals in the area of inundation,” he said adding that to restore wetlands effectively, a long-term restoration is needed to maintain wetlands in the future.

International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Freshwater Ecology Researcher Dr. Chaturangi Wickramaratne discussing the much-needed paradigm shift for wetlands revealed that 60% of Colombo wetland area lost from 1980 to 2016 and solid waste identified as a critical threat to their existence. 

“Scientists have warned that humans are on a collision course with nature. There are significant global movements to repulse these trends to prevent species from extinction, conserve ecosystems and promote sustainable development to alleviate poverty,” she explained. 

Wickramaratne who represents IWMI for the Ramsar Convention said it was introduced to protect wetlands but during the agricultural revolution many of the world’s wetlands had been converted into agricultural lands. 

She further said that there were many conventions and multilateral environmental agreements to protect wetlands and in Sri Lanka there were many domestic legislatures passed and enacted since the 1960s to guide communities and the private sector to promote best practices in terms of national resource utilisation.

Rapid decrease in ecological health

“The IWMI engaged in protecting Colombo wetlands which make the city livable as it regulates climate, floods, and provides habitat for more than 200 species of plants and fauna. Since 1982 to 2016 about 60% of the wetlands in Colombo have been lost. According to our studies, over 50% of those who took part in the study said that the state of Colombo wetlands is poor even though we have done so much to manage them. The wetlands cover has decreased and is deteriorating leading to rapid decrease in ecological health,” she cautioned.  She also attributed solid waste, which is a significant issue in the city, adhoc development, agriculture and invasive species as major stresses to wetlands.

Wickramaratne stated that human’s relationship with nature was broken as they were taking nature for granted while the current economic models did not accommodate or integrate values of nature. 

“As scientists, environmental experts, enthusiasts, we all are frustrated thinking what to do and where to go next. I think it needs a transformative approach to fix this broken relationship with nature and make peace with nature,” she emphasised. 

Wickramaratne further said that many governmental frameworks or management frameworks were made by humans for humans considering that they were the most dominant species on earth while they are living with nine million other non-species and so many unknown species. 

“Basically, it needs shifting our mindsets from very human-centred views towards more holistic, inclusive and consider that everyone is part of larger ecosystems, including humans,” she said adding that it was not a radical concept as it was embedded in our historical views, religious and spiritual practices and included in many religions around the world.  

“It is time that we turn the tide and not really be human-centred and human dominant and to think about other species and ecological processes around us. Without this in mind our survival will probably be affected. The decisive task of the 21st Century is to make peace with nature and this should be the top priority of everyone and everywhere, which requires collective action of all of us – Government, civil society, private sector, scientists, lawyers and youth,” she stressed.

Young scientists Ayantha Abeygunawardana, Kavindi Dilshara and Sathiska Chamikara Widanage also presented their findings on wetlands restoration.