“Unite to combat climate change” is the 2009 World Environment Day theme – a day which asks local communities to join together to create a global response to climate change.
But how can we, in Sri Lanka, create a meaningful and positive response to this challenge? As a world biodiversity hot-spot, it is only right we look to our diverse natural heritage to help us create a carbon neutral future. We have over 140 rainforest fragment patches which play a vital role in combating climate change.
It is in this spirit we organised a climate change education programme and wide-scale clean-up of Kottowa Forest, one of the closest rainforest fragments to Galle. Nearly 250 people came together to conserve and raise awareness of the importance of this forest area.
According to research conducted by Dr. Simon L. Lewis, a Royal Society Research Fellow at the Leeds University Earth & Biosphere Institute, “Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18% of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of climate change”. So by protecting our remaining rainforest, we're not only saving habitat, but also preserving important carbon sinks.
With the support and participation of six schools, Education Department, Forest Department, Tea Research Institute, Yakkalamulla Police, Pradesha Saba, and local businesses including the Amangalla Hotel, Commercial Bank, Wadood, Sahana Bakery and LGJ Supercentre, the Galle community really was united in its efforts to conserve this important carbon sink and help combat climate change.
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