A survey on distribution of Kalu Wandura (Western Purple Faced Langur) in the Western Province and SBP work in South

ECO-V team conducted a survey to find out the distribution of WPFL and level of conflict in the community with WPFL. People who have been interviewed revealed the problems faced by them because of WPFL. However we felt the tolerance level of the community in the surveyed population is very high though WPFL has been hindrance to their cultivation and the dwellings. We also approached some of the religious places on the survey route. There is a common agreement in the community that the human beings have encroached the habitats of the WPFL and other wild animals.Therefore they accepted the concept of coexistence animals and human beings in the urban settings in the Western Province. This may be mainly due to the Buddhist culture and believes of the people in the society.

Dr. Rudy Rudran who started this project will be visiting Sri Lanka next week to evaluate the progress of the project and to plan the future activities. In the meantime the youth team ,we formed following the Waga exhibition is constantly monitoring the WPFL activities in their villages.

Harsha, the coordinator to the Pelican Conservation project is presently fully involved in the survey of the distribution of Pelicans in 3 districts, Monaragala, Hambantota and Ratnapura. The water level of the man made tanks has been reduced leading to internal migration of Pelicans in the above mentioned districts. Therefore this would be a good opportunity to get the estimation of Pelican population in the southern part of Sri Lanka. The friends of Pelican teams we formed before are involved with this survey with Harsha and Department of Wildlife is helping us to get information from the parks in the area.

National Youth Service Council (NYSC) youth camp in Anuradhapura.

Honorable Minister of Environment Mr. Champika Ranawaka directed ECO-V to meet Director General of the NYSC to discuss the youth activities on environment.When Kanchana met Chairman/Director General to NYSC, Mr. Bhashwara Gunaratne, he requested her to get involved with their ongoing youth training programme called “Rata Dinawana Wishishtayo” as a resources person as there was no one to handle the proposed environmental component of the programme. We happily accepted the invitation as we felt we could do more with the experience we have conducting the ECO-V youth camps at the village level.

NYSC also requested to develop an environmental training module for their youth training programmes based on our experience. Kanchana traveled to Anuradhapura on the 9th of September to deliver a lecture to the first batch of 500 youth selected under the theme of Archeology and Youth. It was held at the garden of the Abhayagiriya Maha Viharaya reconstruction site. The lecture and discussion was focused mainly on Heritage and Environmental friendly lifestyle of our ancestors. All the youth participated enthusiastically in the discussion after 2 hour lecture and appreciated the insight given to them on the environment conservation by our ancestors.
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ECO-V also conducted a survey in major supermarket outlets on implementation of the National environmental guidelines given by the Central Environmental Authority on Polythene usage. This survey was conducted voluntarily by ECO-V on a request made by the Chairman of the Central Environmental Authority, Mr. Udaya Gammanpila. It was very satisfying to know the situation of Polythene usage by the customers as ECO-V has been trying to advocate the same policies for last 7 years.

Kaluwandura Exhibition at Waga, Hanwella.

The last planned activity of Kaluwandura Conservation Pilot project initiated by Dr. Rudy Rudran has come into end. The second exhibition for Kalu wandura Project was held on the 24^th August 2008 at Sri Pemananda Dharma school in Waga,Hanwella.

ECO-V and Kaluwandura Conservation team visited the temple the day before the exhibition and started making the exhibits with the help of the youth team whom we met during the first presentation. Initially we met only 4 boys but now there are around 15 youngsters who ended up volunteering to our activities. Jaliya, Srinath, Sampath and Pethum are some of them who never said “no” to any work. We all were so pleased about their enthusiasm and they gave us more energy to work in the future.

The high priest at the temple was the mentor of this youth group and always helped us by encouraging and supplying food and tea during work.

The chief guest at the exhibition was the Chairman of the Central Environmental Authority who appreciated our effort in conservation of this fast vanishing species and promised the state support and patronage for the future .

Kanchana also participated in a work shop organized by the South Asian Youth Environmental Network (SAYEN). SAYEN is a network among all the SARRC countries and trying to achieve a common goal in their respective countries. ECO-V also agreed to become a member of SAYEN as we also can contribute to achieve these goals through our environmental programmes for youth groups. During this workshop we all contributed to make the strategic plan for coming 5years to achieve the objectives of SAYEN.

Kanchana met Mr. Udaya Gammanpila, the Chairman to central Environmental Authority for the second time in the past week. She went to meet him with the invitation of Mrs. Shyamani Periapperuma the assistant Director to the Post consumer Polythene project of Sri Lanka. She requested ECO-V to conduct a survey to evaluate the situation of the recent policy on Polythene career bags at Supermarkets. This survey was a high priority for the Chairman of CEA and he personally thanked ECO-V for agreeing to do this survey voluntarily.

Kanchana and Thushara became fully involved with the strategic planning of ECO-V during the week end. After finishing the main activities for Kalu Wandura Pilot project we wanted to have some timn for us to plan the future work which we have been postponing for past few months. We are fully determined to organize all the work before we shift into the new office of ECO-V at the beginning of October.

Back to ECO-V from USA.

I returned from a very successful trip to USA. After the GIS training at the University of Tennessee (Sponsored by Conservation Leadership programme - CLP) I went to Orlando, Florida to meet Dr. Rudran. There I stayed with Dr. Rudran and his family and discussed the future plans on Western purple faced langur conservation programme. It was very successful meeting with him as I got many ideas and work plan for the future of this project. I also did able to visit the Disney Animal Kingdom in Orlando. It was very interesting to see how conservation awareness has combined with entertainment to spread the message of protecting threatened species of the world. It was full of fun but the hidden message of conservation is very much there and I loved the place and learnt many things which are useful for our country. However I believe we need more focused conservation education programmes especially for our kids with my new experience .

After Orlando I went to Philadelphia to meet Prof. Eduardo and his wife Claudia for another meeting and both of them are very active conservationists in Argentina and very friendly people. I had a great time with them and their 3 young sons who are having grasshoppers, and toads as pets. They reminded me Gerald Durrell and his books about all these unusual pets but the beauty of that is the attention they give for these tiny creatures. That is the most important conservation message they are passing to any adult in this world.

I’ll be traveling to Udawalwa on Monday to supervise the work Harsha and the team has done on Pelican conservation work during my absence.

ECO-V in JULY - Kanchana and Harsha at SCB conference

Month of July has been very busy for everyone at ECO-V. Harsha went to USA at the end of June to participate in the training on Conservation issues as a part of the CLP award we won this year. Later, Kanchana joined him at 22nd Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) conference which was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee USA from 13th 17 th July. Kanchana will be back only in the beginning of August as she is participating in a training on GIS soon after the conference in the same venue. She will then visit Florida and Pennsylvania to discuss with Dr.Rudy about the Purple Faced Langur project and ECO-V training programmae for young rural conservationist with the support of Kate Stoke Memorial award.
Harsha returned home after a successful training yesterday with the equipments donated by Idea Wild to support the CLP. He has already left to Udawalawa to do the ground work with his new experience for the CLP before Kanchana returns.we will update everybody about our progress once kanchana returns from USA.

Another presentation on Western Purple faced langurs

We started our campaign gain by delivering lecture on Western Purple faced langurs on the 9th of June at Rathanasara Maha Vidyalaya, Waga. Waga is an adjacent village to Labugama forest where there are many WPFL live in the natural forest conditions. This area is also identified as an area where human monkey conflict is intense. Nearly 100 students participated in the lecture and showed a great enthusiasm towards our programme. We conducted an art competition following the lecture for the students who participated.

We also visited the Kahahena Buddhist temple on our way back to discuss about up coming exhibition on WPFL. We had to postpone it until August as I am not available during month of July. I will be attending SCB conference in Chattanooga, USA where I will meet some of my friends from Birdlife International, Fauna and Flora International and Conservation International. This would be another reunion of friends whom I met last year in London and Cambridge when I visited them to talk about Spot-billed Pelicans. I am so exited to meet some of other CLP award winners this year as we all can share our successful stories in the conservation field.

I am very much thankful to Rufford Small Grant programme in UK who is supporting my traveling to the conference. Indeed they are the people who helped and encouraged me 8 years back to establish ECO-V.

Idea Wild equipment programme in USA has supported ECO-V this year with the equipment request for project in Udawalawe for Pelicans by donating a laptop and a digital camera.

The World Environmental day - 2008

Like any other environmentalist in the world I also got involved with the world environmental day celebrations on June 5th. However, personally I believe all 365 days of the year should be the world environmental days. Especially we all should try to make others aware of that and should convince others to realize the importance of being concern about the mother earth. Unfortunately for most of the citizens in the world environmental day is just another day to celebrate, to talk or to write paper articles….But let us make a difference…

The recipients of UNDP/GEF small grants were invited to participate in the exhibition called “Sobha 2008” organized by the Ministry of Environment and Natural resources on the 4th and 5th June 2008 in Colombo. “Simple life towards a sustainable future” was the theme of the exhibition. We highlighted the importance of being environmental friendly person and also talked about the Pelicans and Purple faced langurs in Sri Lanka through our exhibits. We specially highlighted the importance of home gardening and educating children on its fauna and flora for a sustainable future with emerging food crisis which is a product of climate change. We focused on the fact that there is thousands of living creatures and it is the best living laboratory to learn many concepts and ethics of the life.

We did able to sell many of our eco friendly products and also met many environmental lovers who joined us as members.