Effect of reforestation on traditional lifestyles of peripheral communities (Focus on Pines planted northeast slope of Sinharaja)

Abstract

The Sinharaja forest comes under the category of “Tropical Rain Forests”. It is located between latitudes 6U 21 i- 6U 26i N and longitudes 80U 301-80U 34i E. It consists of 11187 hectares spread over an elevation range of 150-1150 above sea land. Over centuries, the peripheral communities of Sinharaja have interacted with the forest in many ways and basically their livelihoods are dependent on the forest resource use. Thus, there is a strong attachment between the forest and the peripheral communities. However, a gradual decline in this relationship is observed with reforestation projects introduced after 1970s. Hence, the stuffy focuses on analyzing the traditional livelihoods of the peripheral communities, trends in livelihoods and contribution of reforestation projects for these trends. For the research, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, focusing more on questionnaire surveying, interviewing and focused group discussions. The study reveals that banned entrance to reforested pines areas has a great effect on the decline of traditional livelihoods of the peripheral communities. Reforestation of pines on these lands is identified as foremost cause for the decline in traditional livelihood systems. The rainforest in the area was used over years for firewood and, Kitul tapping. Gathering of bee honey has declined due to loss of bee habitats and lack of nectar for bees. Also, one of the traditional livelihoods of peripheral communities; basket weaving using vinp species was badly affected due to lack of raw material inside the pines cultivated areas. Additionally, gathering of medicinal species and forest provisions for subsistence and for sale seem declining. Thus, the research emphasizes the importance of the development of environment systems using local flora species in the targeted areas to be reforested than using of foreign flora species such as pines. Also it focuses on the timely need of the establishment of markets for forest based local productions and raw materials.