Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-11-21

Conversion of the Pinus Plantation in Sri Lanka into a Plantation of indigenous plant species

- The Pinus Plantation in Sri Lanka had been established during the period from 1960 - 1990 in order to produce raw material for the paper industry and to create a forest cover on the degraded lands in the catchment areas. At present, there are 16,000 hectares of pinus plantation in the wet and the intermediate zones of Sri Lanka. Since under plantation does not exist in the pinus plantation found in the hilly areas, its contribution towards the watershed conservation is minimal.

As such, a proposal has been made for the implementation of a project to plant indigenous plant species for the development of an under planting in the pinus plantations carried out for the environmental conservation in the watershed areas. Through this, there will be a possibility of increasing the soil and water conservation in such plantations and developing the biodiversity. Accordingly, the proposal made by H.E. the President Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment, to implement this project under the grant aid provided by the Asia Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation during the on coming period of 3 years, was approved by the Cabinet.