CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Improving Natural Resource Governance for

Rural Poverty Reduction in Nilgala

Briefing paper

Executive Summary Improving Natural Resource Governance for rural poverty reduction in Nilgala was started in 2009. However, the project was come to an end in December 2011due to the sudden decision by its funder Ukaid to stop funding for Sri Lanka. The project has made number of improvements in empowering local communities to gain the acceptance in governing forest resources in the area. The lessons learned by the project implementation shows that local communities have many barriers to overcome in forest governance. The poverty itself is a barrier. The attitude of the authorities, weaker social relationships, political division, and lack of organizing are among them. It was shown that better governance can be achieved but cannot be past tracked. Both top down and bottom up approach is vital achieving good governance. When the country itself going through a deterioration of good practices, it has impacts on people’s minds and thereby makes a slow progress. A governance project needs a patient approach. It needs further involvement for its sustainability. However, the project experience shows better governance can be achievable, yet needs design changes.

Improving Natural Resource Governance for Rural Poverty Reduction in people residing in the vicinity of Nilgala Forest- Madagama Division

Introduction

1.1 How the project was conceived?

Natural resource Governance is troublesome in many countries. The case in Sri Lanka goes back to the British colonial period. Since the vesting of public land under the Crown under the Crown Land Ordinance, local people lost the customary rights and access to the natural resources such as Forest. The Timber ordinance (1848), Forest Ordinance (1938) and the Fauna and Flora Ordinance (1937) further separated local communities from the natural resources. Entering and collection of non timber products became an illegal act. Since then people have very limited access to natural resources and thereby natural resource governance became a mere control and management under the Forest and Wildlife departments. Nilgala is one such Forest which was once a medicinal plant forest during the King Buddhadasa in the 3rd century AD. Natural vegetation of Sri Lanka can be divided in to three broad climatic zones. They are the Dry, intermediate and wet zones. In these climatic zones there are eleven major plant communities. Of these eleven plant communities tropical Savannah forest, grassland and mangroves are the true forests peculiar to each climate. Of the three true forests, tropical savannahs forest community is found in the eastern sector of the south central hills of Sri Lanka at an elevation of 300-900m elevation .This region falls within dry and intermediate zones of Badulla hill slopes around Bibile. Nilgala forest is located in Bibile region adjoining Gal-Oya national park. It is one of the best sources for non timber forest products including medicinal plants. The plant community at Nilgala is a group of scattered trees. It consists of trees such as Aralu ( Terminalia chebula) , Bulu ( Terminalia belarica) , Nelli (Emblica officinalis) , Kahata ( Careva arborea) , Kudumberiya ( Diospyros melanoxylon)etc. These plants are found in fairly large numbers only in this region. In this area the rainfall regime is different from that of wet zone. It is also the catchments area for Senanayake Samudraya1, the Sri Lanka’s largest man made reservoir which supplies water to irrigate major part of paddy fields in Ampara district of the Eastern province. Aluthwela, Narangolla Pambawelketiya, Dimbuldena, Morandawa, Galhabedda, Akkara anuwa, Dewalagoda, Kalugaha wadiya, Tungalthota, are few villages situated bordering Nilgala Forest in the Magadama DS division. Dahamal Oya a tributary of Galoya which carries water to the Senanyaka Samudraya across the above villages. Yet people cannot use this water for irrigation in upstream. The forest has being declared as a Galoya strict nature reserve under the Fauna and Flora Protection ordinance as a catchment for the reservoir and due to high biodiversity. Therefore people in these villages cannot benefit from the forest too. The forest area located between the Wildlife Reserve and the villages have categorized as “other forest” which comes under the purview of the Forest Department. Local communities have limited access to this forest area.

1 “Samudraya” means a large reservoir built in the old days in Sri Lanka. Senanayake Samudraya was built in 1953

to irrigate lands in the Eastern province.

There are a clear environmental injustices due to this situation and economic and social injustices due to the unavailability of a benefit sharing. The purpose of the project is to improve environment justice for the poor in the ten villages. In improving the environment justice the governance for the natural resources empower civil society organizations which improve the capacities of the local community to reduce poverty and better management of natural resources. The purpose of the project is to improve the understanding by all relevant stake holders the relationship between the local communities and the natural resources management. 1.2 What are the Goals, objectives of the project?

IUCN-Sri Lanka and Centre for Environmental Justice in 2009 have agreed to collaborate in the implementation of a Project “Improving Environmental Justice for the Rural Poor in Sri Lanka” which is a component of a global project entitled “Improving natural resource governance for rural poverty reduction.” The project aims to strengthen rights to natural resources, promote changes to reduce procedural inequalities by addressing questions of fair treatment and uniformly applying governing rules, regulations and evaluation criteria focusing mainly on issues faced by poor communities dependent on natural resources and improving protection to the natural resources in collaboration with all stakeholders. Hence the project focuses on three main elements. They are:

Improving governance for managing natural resources;

Empowering civil society to reduce poverty and better natural resource management; and

Capacity building for civil society to effectively manage natural resources.

Further to enhancement of environmental justice and better governance, the project also aims to collaborate with civil activity, national, regional and state organizations and authorities to enhance the correct/proper use of natural resources for the purpose of poverty alleviation of the villagers. It is also expected to make those residents aware of the laws that bind them and direct them to perform their livelihood activities in accordance with them. By educating them on legal aspects, an environment can be created for people to make use of natural resources for the welfare of the poor. It is also expected to reach agreement among the authorities interested in the development of the area and the law enforcement procedure. The ultimate target is uplifting of environmental justice of the poor villagers. Plans to manage natural resources and strengthen CBOs to co-ordinate and manage natural resources and the environment are to be developed and executed.

1.3 Who initiated this action?

Centre for Environmental Justice is an environmental organization working in the field of law and Science established in 2004. CEJ activities promote environmental justice and environmental governance for promoting equal environmental rights. CEJ in collaboration with the Nilgala Mithuro and the funding support of the IUCN and Ukaid initiated the above project in Nilgala area and Periyakalapu in 2009. Nilgala Mithuro was formed when an earlier project a medicinal plant project funded by IUCN was started. This collaborator had organized villagers in the surrounding areas of the Nilgala Forest since 2002. Nilgala Mithuro is a local CBO based in Bulupitiya, Bibile. IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges. Ukaid is the official funding assistance of the United Kingdom. The governance approach for the project was jointly casted by the IUCN- Sri Lanka, IUCN- Asia region, CEJ, PILF and the project advisors.

1.4 Which location? The Nilgala forest is a savannah type of forest situated in the Moneragala administrative district coming under the purview of the Forest Department. This forest is part of the Medicinal forest established by King Buddadasa,(3rd Century AD) said to be a famous physician. This forest is located buffering Gal Oya National Park, created in 1954, to act as the catchment for “Senanayake Samudraya” in Ampara, built by damming Gal Oya. Both Gal Oya and Dahamal Oya flows through the Nilgala forest. It consists of 12,432 hectares. Its elevation range is between 200m and 700m located within the points called Irindahela, Hangale, Yakunehela, Hampola, and Badangamuwa. The mean annual rainfall in the area varies between the average annual rainfall 1500mm-2000mm (rain during North east monsoon).Therefore, this area comes under the intermediate zone which has less rainfall compared to the wet zone. There are no functioning small ancient tanks in the catchment of Gal Oya and Dahamal Oya although there are a number of abandoned tanks in the Gal Oya National Park. Both Gal Oya and Dahamal Oya are dammed at Inginiyagala to build “Senanayaka Samudraya” to provide water to Ampara District. This water flows to Akkaraipattu , Kalmunai and other areas in the Eastern province making the soil very fertile for paddy cultivation and solving the water scarcity situation in the Eastern province. 1.4 Who are the communities and the problems The communities living in the upstream areas of Gal-Oya river coming within Gal-Oya national park and the villages in the peripheral areas of Gal-Oya national park especially Aluthwela, Narangolla, Pambawel-ketiya, Dimbuldena, Morandawa, Galahabedda, Akkaraanuwa, Dewalegoda, Kalugahawadiya, Tungalthota are coming within the Nilgala project area. Since these communities inhabit the peripheral lands of an important conservation area they have to face number of environmental social and economic problems.

Around 165 of families are living in the project area and the total population is around 1020 people. This does not include Kotabowa village which is located outside the forest area. There are 48 government employees including military services. While some people are from the area, others have been relocated by the government due to various times. The ethnic composition of the households in the villages mainly comprises of Sinhala Buddhist and there are 40 families of Muslims. Majority of the people which is more than 60% of the people living in the area can be categorized as poor. Among them around 30% are very poor families and living below the poverty line. People who live in these areas have their main livelihood as agriculture. But no harvesting is assured due to lack of irrigation facilities. Except for a few people who can afford to pump water from Dahamal Oya, others only engage in rain fed cultivation. Most of the residents in the area carry out Chena Cultivation. Cow Pea, Peanuts, Green Gram, Ginger, Manioc, Maize and various vegetables can be seen in those plots. Home gardening is a very low activity in the area. The reasons attributed can be lack of water and also lack of agricultural knowledge. Therefore the main aim is to earn their livelihood based on the forest reserve. Both men and women make their living by going into the forest reserve and collect Gall nuts(Aralu), Bulu, Nelli, Beedi leaves ( Kudumberiya), bee honey, mushrooms, fire wood, ayurvedic medicinal plants and fruits. Mushrooms, fire wood, ayurvedic medicinal plants and fruits are kept for their domestic consumption while traders come to purchase the seeds with medicinal value, bee honey,” beedi” leaves and fruits which are one of their sources of income. Yet there is no assured prize and a proper market due to various reasons. Problems posed by officers under laws and regulations such as

a. Forest Ordinance, b. Flora and fauna Ordinance, c. State lands Ordinance.

NTFP collections constitute a major part of the communities’ livelihood. However the villagers and the communities mentioned are not a party to the decision related to the conservation or the utilization of the resources in both conservation areas. No participatory conservation effort can be observed. The relationship between people and the wild life officers is mostly limited to driving away elephants, and law enforcement. Communities living in the project sites Gal Oya National park, Nilgala Forest Reserve and the Senanayake Samudraya reservoir lack benefit sharing. Depriving access to water for the people living upstream including the project site is a major problem. The Nilgala forest is under enormous pressure for land grabbing for the Pineapple cultivation project proposed in1991 and Sugar cane cultivation project proposed in 2007 by some powerful locals and their foreign collaborators, without the consent and participation of the local communities.

People in the project area are politically marginalized and they do not enjoy equal and economic rights. This community has less bargaining power compared to some communities in the same area. It is also observed that those agencies in the area are not adequately responding to the needs and rights of the communities in the project area. The major governance issues identified are

Unclear forest demarcation and related conflicts;

deprived access to water due to downstream water usage;

No benefit sharing from the Senanayake Samudraya or the Nilgala Forest and Gal Oya National Park;

Absence of a permit system for the collection of Non Timber Forest Products from the Gal Oya National Park;

Lack of information and community participation on forest and wildlife management and elephant control, forest fires etc;

Poor knowledge on management of Civil society organizations;

Bribery and corruption and Inequitable law enforcement ,

Illegal forest destruction and poaching continue to happen despite the strict regulations;

Inadequate conservation staff

Lack of evaluation and monitoring by the relevant agencies;

Lack of transparency in allocating land for mega development projects;

Lack of a proper and guaranteed NTFP market and distribution mechanism 2 what activities done and what is the result? The project has already gone though several initiatives to aware the local people, Grama Niladhari, Forest Department, Wildlife Department and relevant staff in the Madagama Divisional Secretariat on the legal system and the better governance. There had been several meetings to study the governance issues together. Local communities have been educated on managing organizations and engaged in building the confidence and promoting the environmental organization which has been there since 2007. Number of meetings were conducted in the Divisional Secretariat in Madagama. The roundtable discussions conducted had the participants including the Community members, Grama Niladharies, Wild life and Forest Department officers, Samurdhi Officers, Agriculture officers etc. An umbrella organization was formed bringing all the village environmental organization to a one platform. A mediation board was established to settle the minor environmental disputes. A revolving fund was started in order to assist the communities to improve the income generation. It was noted that under the new Forest Act amendments the communities can involve in managing forests. Section 5 and 6 of the Forest (Amendment) Act No.65 of 2009 in the manner for the purpose of conservation of bio- diversity, soil and water and for the preservation of its unique ecosystem, genetic resources and as a habitat of rare and endemic species of flora and fauna. In order to implement such a management plan, the minister shall make regulations applicable to the

whole or any specified area of the reserved forest as stated in section 4 of the said amendment act and can prepare of management agreements for the purpose of obtaining community and non-state sustainable management of Reserve Forest. We have made the request to the Forest Department to produce such a management plan and allow the environmental umbrella organization set up under the project to be involved in the forest management. 3 What is the Governance model proposed? Why was it chosen? 3.1: Umbrella organisation There are 10 environmental organizations that have been established in 2007 by Nilgala Mithuro in each village i.e Aluthwela, Narangolla, Pambawelkatiya, Dimbuldena, Morandawa, Galahabedda, Akkara-anuwa, Dewalegoda, Kalugaha wadiya and Thungalthota. As per our involvement they have registered under the Madagama Divisional Secretariat. They these organizations operate a bank account and collect membership fees. The management issues heve been resolved tp some extent. Under the first stage of the project we have already trained them on how to manage the accounts, book keeping and maintain minute of the meetings. They were given funds to manage a revolving fund. The organizations have been brought under one umbrella organization and now they have an elected a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasure and acommittee. The Umbrella organization now conduct meetings in every month. The Chairperson of the umbrella organization sit in the to the Agriculture committee under the Divisional Secretary. We see this as a very positive step. Flow Diagram of the Umbrella Organization 3.2 Village Forum There are 3 government officers who are directly engage with the communities on day to day basis. They are the Wildlife Officers, Forest Officers and the Grama Niladhari in the each division.

Umbrella

Organization

Community

Village

Environmental

Organizations

Therefore as the step two project would like to bring these officers and the office bearers of the village umbrella organization together to form a village Forum. In this connection we would seek the collaboration of the Wild life Department, Forest Department and the Grama Niladharies in each division. We hope this village Forum can resolve many governance issues. The issues that needs to discuss may include

Land demarcation problems

Human-elephant conflict

Community participation in controlling forest fires, illegal gemming, illegal logging and poaching

Access to non-timber Forest Products,

Benefit sharing

Building environmental education

Mediating forest, wild life, water and farmer issues

Possible alternative income generation

Mechanism for selecting such income generation for the proposed revolving fund Flow diagram for the proposed Village Forum 3.3 Nilgala livelihood and Governance Forum There are number of others stakeholders to the decisions which affect the local communities. Some of the issues need to be decided at a higher level. Therefore the project proposes another platform Nilgala livelihood and Governance Forum under the chairmanship of the Divisional Secretary.

Umbrella

Organization

Wild life Dpt,

Forest Dpt,

Grama Niladhari

Such issues may include

Benefit sharing from the forest and water

Permits for the collection of non timber forest products

Alternative income generation

Managing the revolving fund

Acceptance for the proposed environmental mediation mechanism

Land alienation

Future development projects and infrastructure projects etc. Such issues that may require higher level engagement can be referred to a Nilgala Livelihood and Governance Forum. The Forum should have equal partnership for the local communities. At the moment as proposed by the Divisional Secretary, Madagama, the monthly Agriculture meeting can play this role if all the stakeholders of the said meeting agreed to include local communities. If not we would request similar meeting to be held to fulfill this need. Flow diagram of the proposed Nilgala Livelihood and Governance Forum 3.4 Implementation of the Forest Management plan Under the new Forest Act amendments the communities can involve in managing forests. Section 5 and 6 of the Forest (Amendment) Act No.65 of 2009 in the manner for the purpose of conservation of bio- diversity, soil and water and for the preservation of its unique ecosystem, genetic resources and as a habitat of rare and endemic species of flora and fauna. In order to implement such a

Umbrella

Organizations

Wild life Dpt,

Forest Dpt,

Grama Niladhari

Divisional Secretary

Livelihood officer

Agriculture officer, etc

management plan, the minister shall make regulations applicable to the whole or any specified area of the reserved forest as stated in section 4 of the said amendment act and can prepare of management agreements for the purpose of obtaining community and non-state sustainable management of Reserve Forest. We have made the request to the Forest Department to produce such a management plan and allow the environmental umbrella organization set up under the project to be involved in the forest management. 3.5 Mediation Boards During the PRA it was identified several minor disputes in the Nilgala Forest area that can be settled through alternative dispute resolution methods. forest demarcation issues, forest encroachments, lagoon encroachments, farmer fishermen conflicts are some of them. Sri Lanka has already introduced Mediation boards as an assured process in resolving these issues through the Mediation since 1989. CEJ has several years experience in training environmental Mediators and managing an environmental Mediation Boards. Since some of the disputes are related to environment, it was agreed to train selected people with some environmental background from both locations on mediation. This training was already conducted by two current Mediation trainers attached to the Ministry of Justice responsible for Monaragala and Ampara district with the full corporation of the Ministry of Justice. Two former mediation trainers also joined the workshop as the trainers. The Mediation process will follow the process below.

Step 1: Choose one trained person as the chairperson of the proposed environmental mediation board.

Step 2: Invite local people to send their disputes in writing to the chairperson

Step 3: inform the second party on the matter

Step 4: conducted the mediation in an stipulated time period

Step 5: Issue the letter either resolved or not

Step 6: If not resolved forward the matter to the Formal mediation boards operated under the Ministry of justice in the relevant DS division

It is important to have a stakeholder acceptance for this informal process. We seek support of the Divisional Secretary in Madagama, Alayadiwembu, and Thirrukowil for this process. CEJ will take the responsibility of managing the Mediation mechanism. 3.6 Revolving Fund The revolving funds have been already established and necessary training and guidelines have been agreed. Under these guidelines and the mechanism the revolving fund will manage their own. The officers of the Madagama Divisional Secretariat were brough into the monitoring and evaluation of the fund.

3.7 Eco store

CEJ has already started an ECO STORE in Colombo for selling organic and Ethical products. The products from the Nilgala people which can be branded as ethical products and organic products can be sold in the Eco Store. It was agreed that the some beneficiares of the Revolving fund produce these products. 3.8 Monitoring mechanism and Nilgala Mithuro As an advisory, monitoring and evaluation mechanism, Nilgala Mthuro was given funds to manage a office in Bibila to monitor the Village Environmental Organizations, Umbrella Organization and the Village Forum. This will be one of the contact points and a mechanism adopted for the long term sustainability of the project.

4. What hinder the progress of Natural resource governance in Nilgala? Communities have many barriers for involving natural resources management. The legal tools available, government officers attitude over the public involvement, lack of public willingness, lack of information, lack of tools and mechanism to obtain public participation, lack of accountability of the respective agencies, lack of predictability are some reasons. It was revealed that villagers were not invited for discussions related to development of forest, land, and water sharing. Further, they were not aware of the laws and regulations. When requested government officers and politicians are not responding to their grievances.

But law enforcing government officers were of the opinion that most of the villagers knew about the laws and also about natural resources and boundaries of the forest. The officers are accommodative to the collection of the forest products but are strict on poaching, timber felling and mining. Some other reasons for hindering the progress are highlighted below.

(i) Legal boundaries of Nilgala forest are not clear. The efforts for resolving this issue has been defunct to some extent due to some reasons.

(ii) Although Dahamal Oya a tributary of Gal Oya flows through the project area the

villagers are deprived of access to its waters and there is no mechanism for benefit sharing.

(iii) Absence of easy procedure for obtaining the permit for the collection of non timber

forest products (NTFP).

(iv) Information on forest management wildlife planning including elephant control are kept out of the people of the area resulting in lack of community support and participation especially in forest fires and elephant control.

(v) The civil society organization lack knowledge on management. (vi) In spite of strict regulations and enforcement poaching and forest destructions are taking

place. (vii) Lapses in monitoring, evaluation, enforcement and also in bribery and corruption,

political interferences, controlling bodies not having enough staff for controlling and protection.

(viii) Not having proper marketing and distribution system (ix) Lack of basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, road, transport facilities, bridges

schools, agriculture instructors etc. The forest governance is new concept for local communities. Their first priority is to tackle some of the above issues. However, it is not easy to tackle them unless there is a new thinking to the forest management. Due to the existing practice, it will be very slow process to convert conventional forest ,management to a better forest governance mechanism. 5. Recommendations and conclusions

The aim of the project is to improve environment justice for the ten villages in the Nilgala area. To improve the environment justice, the project has to improve the knowledge of the villagers on management of natural resources. This has to be done through improvements made to governance, improving the knowledge capacity of the villagers and by empowering civil society organizations. The momentum created by the project in the Nilgala area has to be continued after termination of the project activities. To continue the activities started by the rejuvenated societies, a responsible person has to continue the dialogue between the officials of the relevant departments and the apex body of the societies. Then only the justice will be meted out to their grievances. To keep the momentum the village societies have to be made active. This can be done by making their apex society active.

Attending to their day to day requirements such as helping in getting their products sold and getting a higher price for those products the village organizations can be kept alive and functioning. Attending to the problems faced by the villagers during their day to day work with officers especially of the wild life department, forest department and the police villagers will have faith in these organizations.

Divisional secretary of the area or his representative will be the best person to look after such work after termination of the project work. But he or she should be an active, responsible and penchant person to the villagers. He should be given an allowance and should be monitored by the project office for few more years till stability returns.

END