Mahaweli environment project : project assistance completion report

Despite security problems at Maduro Oya Park and the Government of Sri Lanka's (GSL) initial difficulties in implementation, the project was reasonably successful in meeting its objectives and contributed substantially to the development of a national park program in Sri Lanka. Exceptional progress was made towards establishing seven protected areas, totaling some 250,000 ha or nearly 45% of the lower Mahaweli Basin and representing 30% of the area under wildlife conservation in the country. About 90% of planned construction was completed, including buildings for park administration, training and education, research, and staff housing. These buildings support the nationwide conservation efforts of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC). The DWLC used GSL funds to establish a Training, Research, Education, and Extension (TREE) center at Randenigala, one of six such centers to be established nationwide. Upgrading of the DWLC was achieved via task-oriented workshops by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and via overseas training/study tours for 66 persons. The DWLC now has a comprehensive staff development and training plan, along with an in-house training capability. In 11/92, the DWLC initiated a program at its Wildlife Training Center at Giritale to train mid-level staff in ecology and park management; 30 wildlife range assistants and 150 wildlife guards have been trained. The DWLC also added 8 new professional and 128 new support personnel to its staff, and it became fully decentralized as of 12/31/91. Further strengthening of the DWLC is expected under the Natural Resources and Environmental Policy Project. In the research component, the DWLC collaborated with university researchers on four projects on protected area management problems. The DWLC also established a link with the University of Peradeniya; as a result, five additional research topics are being worked on at the Victoria-Randenigala-Rantembe nature reserve. The project helped to formalize the need to manage protected areas scientifically and promoted recognition of contributions that protected areas make to conservation, sustainable development, and socioeconomic development. Project parks were planned and managed not only for water and soil conservation, but for tourism and rural development opportunities. The project also was the first attempt in Sri Lanka to manage protected areas not as isolated units but as components of a single conservation unit. Today, cluster management of protected areas is being advocated under a proposed DWLC 5-year investment program with the UNDP. One of the most significant actions of the project was the development of a Sustainability Action Plan to ensure the continuance of project activities. After development of the Plan, A.I.D. assisted the GSL in establishing a Wildlife Trust to support TA, fundraising, and innovative public-private approaches to sustaining wildlife resources. The Trust provides the first opportunity for a collaboration between Sri Lankan wildlife conservation efforts and the private sector. Expectations for the project were overly ambitious given the inadequate technical, institutional and financial capabilities of the DWLC at project start-up. The first 2 years should have been devoted to improving the the technical capabilities rather than actually implementing park development and construction, as was the case. DWLC experienced great difficulty in getting buildings and boundary surveys completed in the initial years, and was not able to adequately manage the parks after they were surveyed and legally defined. It was only in the last 2 or 3 years, after DWLC enhanced its staff capabilities, that many of the benefits of the project actually emerged. At the same time, execution of the project from the beginning by the DWLC (despite its deficiencies) would have created a better sense of ownership of the project. As it was, implementation of the project by a unit of the Ministry of State in isolation from the DWLC created an antagonism which lingers despite the integration of the two offices in 1990.