Enhancing ecological connectivity

In 2018, the visionary Founder of Dilmah Tea and Dilmah Conservation Merrill J. Fernando took a ground-breaking step by initiating a rainforest corridor project. Named Endane Biodiversity Corridor Project, the endeavour kicked off with the symbolic removal of tea plants in a land strip at the Dilmah Endane Estate which has segregated two rainforest patches bordering the Sinharaja Rainforest – Iharakanda Forest Reserve and Walankanda Forest Reserve – for over a century due to continuous tea monoculture. 

Following an extensive, intensive and scientific restoration and conservation process the Endane Biodiversity Corridor is now hosting populations of threatened species of fauna sourced from the Walankanda Forest Reserve through an ecological restoration initiative. Contributing to the overall rejuvenation of this forest range landscape, the local community also actively engages in enriching their multi-species functional home gardens within the neighbourhood, as an analogue forest buffer. 

Over the years, the project has blossomed into one of the most successful, scientific conservation and restoration efforts in Sri Lanka. Although the death of the Founder of Dilmah preceded the fruition of the restoration project it is undoubtedly an effort the late Founder would have been most proud of.

Recently at Dilmah Genesis, an event was held to look back at the project and admire its success, which saw the participation of the enablers, researchers, academic experts, university students, and the members of the community in and around Endane Biodiversity Corridor. Among the prominent attendees of the event were; the CEO of Dilmah Tea Dilhan C. Fernando, leading naturalist and taxonomist Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda, and the contributors to the Endane Biodiversity Corridor Project Prof. Nimal Gunathilake, Dr. Nalaka Geekiyanage, Dr. Himesh Jayasinghe, Rishan Sampath, and Amila Perera. 

The importance of Sinharaja
One of the main reasons why the Endane Biodiversity Corridor project is of vital ecological importance is that it involves the Sinharaja Rainforest. As Prof. Gunathilake explained, the rainforests in Sri Lanka, the most popular and important one among which being Sinharaja Rainforest, play a vital role in preserving the biodiversity of the country’s flora and fauna since they are hyper-diverse. “At the same time, they are hyper-vulnerable to changes brought forward by the climate change,” Prof. Gunathilake revealed. 

According to the Forest Department, the Sinharaja Rainforest spans across 36,000 hectares but the Sinharaja Forest Landscape Management Plan 2022 – 2032 includes increasing this coverage significantly. In this regard, the policy decision taken by one of the previous regimes to gazette new boundaries of the unique rainforest and thereby increasing its total extent is vital. The Endane Biodiversity Corridor project can also be viewed as an act of similar importance since it contributes to the extent of expansion of Sinharaja and its neighbouring forest reserves. 

According to Prof. Gunathilake, Sinharaja Rainforest is so unique that it is the only rainforest of that type in the South Asian region; not even India houses rainforests of similar biodiversity composition and importance. 

A meticulous scientific process
While the conservation of Sinharaja Rainforest is rather understood, it is not as simple a matter as going there, starting uprooting tea plants, and re-planting wet-zone plants. According to Perera, a lot of research has gone into determining which species of plants should be introduced to the corridor. 

First, a team of scientists had to conduct some extensive research and mapping to have an idea of the floral diversity of the area and then plan selecting trees to be planted accordingly. As Prof. Gunathilake revealed, this has been an arduous and time-consuming journey since habitat species matching needs to be understood properly before commencing replanting. Even within the corridor, the floral diversity was intense according to the soil and landscape type and the researches had to conduct detailed studies to match exactly the most suitable plants to the specific areas of the corridor.

Once the mapping was completed, the project officers were then dealt with the difficult task of finding seeds. As Perera explained, the seeds needed for replanting were of rare species even the Forest Department hadn’t had the seeds available. Therefore, the team had to comb the two forest reserves – Iharakanda and Walankanda – in search of seeds and then seek the local expertise to gain knowledge on how to make them sprout. The team was careful to source everything from the neighbouring forest reserves to ensure maximum effectiveness. Even the seeds of the most common trees weren’t bought from nurseries elsewhere but were sourced from the forest reserves. 

A success story
Bearing fruits of their labours, the project now stands as perhaps the most successful conservation and restoration story in the country. In the nursery specially built for the corridor, over 10,000 seedlings were raised and so far, more than 4,200 have been planted in the Endane Biodiversity Corridor, among which are; 545 tree species, 188 threatened species, and 42 globally threatened species. Apart from ecological restoration the community-based forest management has seen the active involvement of the community on conservation which is mutually beneficial. For example, the project has introduced valuable and threatened plant species such as Beraliya to the home gardens in the area. The versatile commercial and health benefits of the plant help the community while the gardening ensures the survival of the plant. So far at the corridor, eight tree planting events, nine training and knowledge dissemination workshops, seven industrial training events, 16 undergraduate research projects, and two postgraduate research projects have been held while the community awareness projects have been able to ensure the survival of bees in the area which not only is vital for the pollination of trees but also beneficial for the communities as it creates honey. 

This project serves as a model for the development of large-scale nature corridors within the broader framework of Dilmah Conservation endeavours and Sri Lanka. Dilmah believes that this not only addresses the immediate ecological concerns but also lays the foundation for a sustainable and harmonious coexistence between human activities and the invaluable ecosystems they depend on.

Read the article on Ceylon Today by Sanuj Hathurusinghe: https://ceylontoday.lk/2024/04/11/enhancing-ecological-connectivity/