Ecosystem Conservation and Management

closed

The development objective of the Ecosystem Conservation and Management Project for Sri Lanka is to improve the management of ecosystems in selected locations in Sri Lanka for conservation and community benefits. The project comprises of four components. The first component, pilot landscape planning and management will provide technical assistance, training, and capacity building to develop the guiding framework for landscape-level management planning and support the piloting of landscape planning and management in two selected landscapes comprising contiguous areas of unique ecological, cultural, and socio-economic characteristics. The second component, sustainable use of natural resources and human-elephant co-existence will support communities living adjacent to protected area (PAs) and other ecologically sensitive areas to plan for natural resource use and to develop biodiversity compatible, productive, and climate resilient livelihood activities and to scale-up successful models that address the human-elephant conflict. It consists of two sub-components: (i) sustainable use of natural resources for livelihood enhancement; and (ii) human-elephant co-existence for livelihood protection. The third component, PA management and institutional capacity will support interventions in PAs in compliance with the fauna and flora protection ordinance (FFPO) and the forest conservation ordinance (FCO); support nature based tourism development, and strengthen the institutional capacity and investment capability for conservation and management. It consists of three sub-components: (i) PA conservation and management; (ii) nature-based tourism in protected areas; and (iii) institutional capacity and investment capability of department of wildlife conservation (DWC) and forest department (FD). The fourth component, project management will finance the project management unit (PMU) and implementing agencies in project management, project monitoring and evaluation, through the provision of incremental operating funds, consulting services, transportation, equipment, and training of administrators covering range of topics, such as administration, planning, budgeting, fiduciary activities, safeguards and monitoring and reporting on project implementation.