Effectiveness of electric fencing in mitigating human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka

This study assesses the effectiveness of electric fences in reducing conflict between elephants and humans in Sri Lanka. The study looked at five electric fence projects that have been set up to prevent elephants from straying out of protected wildlife areas into farmers’ fields. This conflict between people and elephants is a key social and environmental problem for the country. A household survey gathered information about how effective the fences are and gauged local people’s attitudes. The study also looked at why electric fences did not work. It found that, although electric fences do help mitigate conflicts between elephants and humans, they do not completely eliminate the problem and do not offer a ‘stand alone’ solution. In each survey area, technical as well as socio-economic factors were found to determine levels of success. Community support for the fences was found to be vital. Poor, ad-hoc decisions were a key factor determining success or failure: Fences were often unsuccessful because elephant behaviour had not been properly taken into account. The findings of the study indicate that a thorough appraisal is needed before an electric fence is set up and that adequate resources should be invested in their construction and maintenance. Local people should be involved in a fence’s planning, construction and maintenance. The report highlights the need for an integrated approach to the problem of human elephant conflict. Such an approach should involve comprehensive land use planning and habitat enrichment alongside well-planned electric fencing, where appropriate. Electric fences are only part of the solution

Policy options for sustainable river sand mining in Sri Lanka

The study finds that a number of site-specific management alternatives can reduce the negative impacts of river sand mining. These are: restriction of mining at vulnerable sites; establishment of an environmental trust fund to pay for environmental restoration; and, involving the community in managing the resource. Due to a construction industry boom in Sri Lanka, indiscriminate river sand mining has created environmental and social problems. The study followed four separate analyses: comparison of annual costs and benefits of selected mining sites; analysis of miners’ views and preferences; evaluation of expert opinion; and a comparison of alternative sources of river sand

Analysis of Public Choice on Environmental Health Management: The Case of Dengue Fever Control in Kandy District

Dengue has become a major environmental health issue in Sri Lanka. Although many programmes have been implemented, yet a remarkable success has not been achieved mainly due to lack of cooperation from the public. In this study, the public choice on dengue control strategies was studied. The study was conducted in Kandy Municipality area, which has the highest risk of dengue in the Kandy district. A choice experiment was carried out with four environmental management attributes with three levels each. The attributes included were: improved cleaning, infrastructure provision, motivation of the public to continue control activities and willingness to pay for dengue control. A multinomial logit model (MNL) was estimated and the analysis revealed that people prefer improved cleaning by the neighbours in surroundings and provision of efficient water supply as effective strategies for dengue control. Furthermore, motivation strategies, which included larger spot fines, appeared to be important

Estimation of Technical Efficiency and It's Determinants in the Tea Small Holding Sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is the world leader in made tea production and the small holding sector dominates national production by accounting for 60% of the island's tea production. However, given the high cost of production, there is a belief that it is very difficult to increase profitability without increasing costly inputs such as labour. With this background, in this study technical efficiency of the tea small holdings sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone of Sri Lanka was estimated in order to identify the potential to increase production without incurring any additional costs for inputs. The sources of inefficiency and the robustness of measured technical efficiency in various functional specifications was also investigated. The primary data collected during the period September - January 2001 relevant to sixty small holder tea producers in the Mid-country Wet Zone was used for the study. Maximum likelihood estimates of the stochastic frontier model were estimated for green leaf yield as a function of land extent, family labour, hired labour, fertilizer, chemicals, and dolomite, using Cobb-Douglas and translog models. The determinants of technical efficiency such as age of farmer, experience, education, occupation type of crop (VP/Seedling) and type of clone were investigated, following the Battese and Coelli (1995) specification. According to the Cobb-Douglas specification, extent of land, family labour, hired labour, fertilizer and dolomite showed significant effects on yield. The coefficients for land, family labour, hired labour and fertilizer had positive values of 1.11, 0.027, 0.067 0.029 and 0.004 respectively. The mean technical efficiency of the tea small holdings sector in the Mid Country Wet Zone was found to be 64.60 per cent. The result for the inefficiency model indicates that age of farmer, education, occupation, type of crop (VP or seedling) and type of clone have significant effects on efficiency. The coefficients for age, education, occupation and type of crop showed negative values. However contrary to expectations, type of clone and experience showed positive values. The estimation with the translog model yielded different technical efficiencies, which indicates the fact that technical efficiency estimations are highly sensitive to the functional form specified

Consumer Preferences for Quality Attributes of Rice: A Conjoint Analysis

Rice production in Sri Lanka has already achieved the self sufficiency status with an average per capita annual consumption of 110 kg. The production will be further enhanced with input supports, land expansion and technological breakthroughs. At the same time, the changes occurred in the Sri Lankan society such as increase in per capita income and urbanization have modified the consumer preferences. In this context, consumer preferences for different quality attributes of rice were assessed based on conjoint methodology. The appropriate attributes and levels were identified from a focus group discussion and subsequently a conjoint questionnaire was administered using a sample of 185 consumers under a fractional factorial design. ANOVA and part worth utility models were estimated. The relative importance of attributes was calculated using part-worths. ANOVA results indicate that of the four attributes, type, color and purity were significant, but price was not significant. Part worth estimates revealed that the purity is the most important attribute when selecting a type of rice

STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT AS A SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR URBAN SOLID WASTE PROBLEM

Solid waste management is becoming a serious issue in urban areas of Sri Lanka due to the changes in income, consumption and lifestyles of the urban dwellers. The current approaches to tackle the issue have shown a little success. With this background, a strategic environment assessment study was carried out in Panadura urban area. A random sample of 170 households was drawn for the data collection with the consultation of relevant authorities. The study was capable of proposing the best management practices, after a consultative process with the relevant authorities. The constraints were identifi ed in implementing these best management practices both at the community level and the authority level. The major  constraints include lack of capacity of the local authority, lack of ownership of waste collection, and awareness on minimizing, separation, composting, recycling and hazardous waste handling. SEA recommendations were made for all the constraints identified. Keywords: Solid Waste Management, Strategic Environment AssessmentFor full paper: [email protected]

Policy Options for Conserving Sri Lanka's Natural Forests

Forest cover in Sri Lanka has declined drastically during the last century. Some of the remaining forests, which are under protection, harbor high levels of biodiversity and endemism. Illegal timber extraction is the most important cause of deforestation at present. The illegal logging now occurring in unprotected forests may extend to protected forests, if necessary policy measures are not implemented. The main policy currently employed to limit deforestation is a timber permit system. This study assesses that policy and four alternative policy measures: legislative approaches; establishment of forest plantations; improvements in the technical efficiency of saw-milling; and liberalization of the timber market. The study finds that the timber permit system has failed to protect Sri Lanka's forests. It has instead resulted in higher timber prices for consumers and lower prices for producers, allowing most of the timber rents to be extracted by timber traders. Furthermore, it has not promoted conservation: low producer prices provide a disincentive for growing trees, while high consumer prices encourage illegal timber extraction from natural forests. Despite the profitability of commercial forest plantations, the private sector does not invest in forestry because of the uncertainty created by the excessive regulatory system.Forest, Sri Lanka

Saving the Wood for the Trees: Sri Lanka's Options for Forest Protection

As in many developing countries, forest cover in Sri Lanka is being rapidly destroyed. The main cause of this loss is illegal logging in unprotected forests. Unless new conservation measures are brought in soon, this problem is almost certain to extend to protected forest areas. The research highlights three policy measures that could bring about significant social welfare and conservation benefits.forest, Sri Lanka

EVALUATION OF THE SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE FOR AN ALTERNATIVE CROP INSURANCE SCHEME FOR PADDY

Crop insurance schemes are important in increasing the agricultural production as most of the subsistence farmers in the developing countries are risk-aversed. However, according to the records of the Agrarian and Agricultural Insurance Board, the present paddy insurance scheme has not attracted majority of the paddy farmers. With this background, a study was undertaken to investigate the weaknesses of present paddy insurance scheme and the factors affecting the enrollment. An alternative premium scheme was also developed and the farmers’ response on it was assessed. The estimation of new premium rate was done using the secondary data available at the Department of Agriculture, based on Olivier’s (1999) approach. A field survey was conducted to investigate the problems of the present scheme and to assess the social acceptance of the alternative scheme. The study revealed that majority of the paddy farmers have not enrolled in the present scheme mainly due to administrative inefficiency, low indemnity payments and lack of awareness. The proposed scheme appears to be more attractive to the most of the rain fed and minor irrigated farmers but not to the major-irrigated farmers. Farmer’s age and farming income were significantly negatively associated with the present enrollment while willingness to join the new scheme was appeared to be high with full- time farmers having more lowland areas. A number of meaningful policy recommendations that helps to improve the livelihood of the rural farmers were derived from the study. Keywords: Paddy, Insurance, Premium, Indemnity, AAIB For full Paper: [email protected]