A Study On Ecosystem Approach To Sri Lankan Coral Reefs Management

Ecosystem based management in marine protected areas(MPAs)have been identified as key concept to improve management strategies in Sri Lanka.Evidences show that distribution of high population close to coastal area and poor management tools have failed to achieve conservation goals and objectives.There are several marine protected areas exist in Sri Lanka,such as Hikkaduwa National park,Rumassala Marine Sanctuary,Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary and Pigeon Island National Park.Many of them are not well managed,and resource extraction and habitat degradation is still continuing.At present the declaration and management of marine protected areas are carried out without adequate consideration of environment,socio-economic,institutional,legal factors or long term management sustainability.Policy makers have focused more towards the creation of new rules and legislation for protected areas rather than ensuring the implementation of existing regulations and management of existing protected areas.Successful resource management is very poor due to the lack of sufficient coordination and seriousness in law enforcement.Due to various kind of economic and political reason,MPAs have failed to attract necessary government support.Habitat protections through well designed and efficiently managed MPAs are essential to prevent the continuing degradation of Sri Lanka marine environment.The aim of this study is to open a spectrum of understanding about how important of ecosystem based management to the conservation of coral reefs in Sri Lanka.It lays a foundation on how the coral reef can be conserved and utilized simultaneously by assessing the existing coral reef management system with top-down approach.The primary and secondary data were collected by questionnaire,articles,reports,thesis,memories,own experience and books.Based on the questionnaires,the information were gathered and obtained from the sample of population amongst the coastal communities.All of the 255 questionnaires forms were distributed among the five coastal areas targeting four education categories.It was highlighted that there are totally 109 factors influencing the four MPAs and one coastal site,where 19 for Rumassala.25 for Unawatuna.27 for Hikkaduwa.21 for Kalpitiya and 17 for Trincomalee.Percentage grading approach was used to synthesize for five categories,in which 5 =(Extremely bad status which needed urgent response),4 =(Poor status which needed more effort).3 =(Moderate status which needed some effort),2 =(Fair status which needed less effort),and 1 =(Good status which needed to maintain).The grading points are 3.4,4.6,5,3.8 and 3.2 for Rumassala,Unawatuna,Hikkaduwa,Kalpitiya and Trincomalee,respectively.The situation in Hikkaduwa and Unawatuna was extremely bad and needs to response very urgently.Kalpitiya has also revealed poor status.Although Rumassala and Trincomalee were still under the moderate status,there was a trend to become poor status in these two sites.There is a need for further capacity development to provide awareness of essential aspects for the local coastal people.This study has pointed out some key steps in formulating the evaluation of effectiveness of EBM,which have the potential to assist the researchers,managers,decision makers and interested parties to undertake effective ecosystem based management of Sri Lankan coral reefs.