Implementing Agency:
Department For International Development (DFIDSEA)

Managing Institute:
OFI (Oxford Forestry Institute)

Contractor:
Oxford Forestry Institute (OFI)

Project Code: 178-502-009	Start Date: 01/05/1991	End Date: 31-Mar-97
Commitment: £1,195,000	Status: Completed	Type of Funding: Bilateral - TC

Project Background:
This is an important component of Govt of Sri Lanka (GOSL) forstry activity and accords with the intentions of the Forestry Materplan which emphasises the need for plantations on public and private land and for forestry research. It coincides with the term of the Forestry Sector Development Project (FSDP) (World Bank) and will be a main customer for the services and products of Forest/Land Use Mapping Project (FORLUMP).

Support for the two universities is consistent with GOSL policy as expressed by the University Grants Commission.

Sri Lanka is a priority country for DFID's initiatives in forestry and the environment. The focus of forest planting in the up-country coincides with DFID's particular interests in protecting the catchment of the Victoria Dam.

Insofar as the programme promotes people involvement, it will support DFID's general concerns that British aid should assist the poorest and women.

The programme pursues the recommendations of international fora: the Bellagio I meeting (July 1987) wanted technical, biological, socio-economic and policy research to be intensified. The Task Force on Tropical Forestry Research (February 1988) identified five fields for research: agro-forestry, watershed management, natural forest ecology and management, tree improvement, and the complex of utilisation/market/policy/socio-economics.

The 14th Asia Pacific Forestry Commission recently noted the meagre follow-up to the Tropical Forestry Action Plan and urged governments and donors to make available such funding and manpower "as would help make a significant impact on deforestation". The same Commission also urged that "training in forestry sciences be strengthened ... in a complex world characterised in inter-locking social, economic and environmental dimensions".

Project Objectives:
More self-reliant Forestry Dept (FD) and Universities of Peradenyia (UP) and Sri Jayawardenepura (USJ).

Strengthened Sri Lanka University forestry training.

Pragmatic research started by FD, UP, USJ.

Deforestation and better management of national forest estate.

Decline in soil erosion leading to reduced rate of siltation of Victoria and other reservoirs.

Increased protection of wood and wood products.

Increased rural employment.

Intended Outputs:
University staff skilled in the application of computers to their work.

Forestry/Environmental information.

Research results.

Research masterplan.

Trained staff.

Completed Flora of Ceylon.