Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-12-06

Orders for the regulation of maintaining of Sea Turtle Conservation Study Centers

- In terms of the Fauna and Flora Protection Act, all turtle species living in the coastal belt of the Island and those living in the Sea Zones are considered as highly protected reptiles and keeping such animal in one's possession is a punishable offence. The sea turtle conservation centres in the Southern coast maintained by the private sector with the objective of bringing the sea turtle eggs from the coast and protecting them in the artificial nests prepared for the purpose and subsequently releasing the baby sea turtles so born into the sea, have been operative since 1980. Around 15 such centres are maintained in the Southern Coast and they have become popular tourist and conservation centres. Therefore, the proposal made by Hon. Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife, to formalize these private turtle conservation centres further, to register the centres in the Department of Wild Life Conservation and provide provision to regulate them granting permission to operate under annual permits and to publish the Orders prepared under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance Act, in a Gazette Notification, was approved by the Cabinet.