Coastal People's Identification of Mangrove Species in the Southern Coastal Area.

Abstract

Sri Lanka has a very small mangrove cover, which is about 12 000 ha and 0.1 - 0.2 % of the total land area. It plays a vital role in supporting the sustenance of coastal biodiversity and livelihood of coastal dwellers. In contrast, the mangrove resources have been severely damaged or reduced by various illegcil human activities during the recent past. These negative impacts could be more severe when people's knowledge and unawareness on mangrove species and their importance is poor. Therefore, the dweller's knowledge and awareness on neighboring mangrove ecosystems is a pre-requisite for its protection and conservation. The main objective of this study was to assess the level of knowledge/awareness on the identification of mangrove species and its importance in the Southern coastal area. The study area included coastal belt of the Matara and Galle Districts. Household sample (10%) was selected using a cluster random sampling method. A questionnaire, focus group discussions, observations were used for the data collection. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyse the data by using some analytical tools. People's identification was categorized in three groups; unprompted responses (Gl), prompted responses (G2), not identified by prompted responses (G3). Findings indicated that a large number of householders (77.1 %) did not identify the mangroves. Out of few true mangroves in the area, 74% were identified kirala (Sonneratia alba) and Heen kadol (Aegiceras corniculatum) (39.6%) and Mal kadol (Bruguiera cylindrica) (28.8%). More than 90% of households did not identify by prompt, of the 12 out of 18 true mangrove species. Mostly identified associate mangrove species were Karan (Acrostichum aureum), Suriya (Thespesia populnea) and Domba (Calophyllum inophyllum) by unprompted knowledge. Even after prompting, many householders' (> 90%) did not identify 7 out of 15 associate mangrove species, namely Opalu (Cynometra iripa) (99.1 %), Kalawal (Derris spp.) (96.7%), Etuna (Heritiera littoralis) (98.6%), Diyadanga (Dolichandrone spathacea) (95.5%), Wal Gurunda (Clerodendron inerme)(97.4%), Indi (Phoenix zeylanica) (93.0%), and Wal Midi (Premna obtusifolia) (90.3%). Many householders had very low knowledge on the importance of mangroves. Further studies are needed to improve the knowledge of the coastal dwellers hence, reducingthe the massive threats on mangroves.