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12 

SRI LANKA'S FOREST 
I n some forests of the wet 

zone where the stocking of the 
species h o r a (diptero-carpus-zey-
lanicus) is very h i g h i t has been 
found t h a t opening up of the 
canopy in the • course o'f carry­
ing out logging operat ions ' results 
i n the establ ishment of prol i f ic 
n a t u r a l regenerat ion so t h a t a n 
a lmost 90 per cent h o r a pole crop 
replaces the o r i g i n a l ' m i x e d forest. 
T h i s m e t h o d of m a n a g e m e n t call- ( 

ed shelterwood regenerat ion could 
be appl ied successfully i n this 
country only to those forests where 
there is a b u n d a n t hora a n d such 

- forests are, ' unfor tunate ly , not 
common. 

T h e present output of t imber 
f r o m the wet zone is- about 2.5 
mi l l ion cu. f t . since the e x t n t of 

'" forest is 532,000 acres the yield 
' on a "per acre" basis is about 5 
1 cu. f t . T a k i n g the example of 
> Swi tzer land (where t h e classical 
1 method of m a n a g i n g forests for 
• product ion is adopted) the a n n u a l 

product ion of industr ia l wood i n 
t h a t country is 119 m i l l i o n cu. f t . . 
f r o m 9.88 mi l l ion acres, or 12 cu. f t . 
per acre. 

r T h e compart ive ly low output 
from- our wet zone forests, despite 
the better growing condit ions i D 

" the tropics, is m a i n l y due to the 
fact t h a t large extents o f pre* 
duct ive forests i n the low a n d 
mid-country wet zone are inac­
cessible, ' and as such, no t imber 
a t a l l is harvested f r o m such areas. 
As pointed out by Tisseveerasinghe 
(1965) i n his president ia l address 
to this section in 1964, t h e m a i n 
l ine of investment i n as f a r as the 
wet zone forests are concerned 

• should be i n the construction of 
access roads. • T h i s w i l l y ie ld i m -
media te re turns by way of t imber 
wh ich could be harvested rights 
away. 

I must of course sound a note 
' of w a r n i n g here. Render ing more 
' of the wet zone forests accessible 
j w i t h 1 the forest l a w and its en­

forcement i n its' present state could 
< easily result i n extensive encroach­

ments and i l l ic i t clearings. So 
unless effective act ion is f i rst taken 
to prohib i t a l l forest clearings I d 
the wet zone i t m a y be better to 
have the forests inaccessible r a t h e r 
t h a n open t h e m out to the would be 
encroacher. . 

I should est imate t h e present 
consumpt ion of industr ia l wood i n 

E c o n o m i c R e v i e w , F e b r u a r y 1 9 7 8 
-f 

Ceylon a t about 13 mi l l ion cu. f t . 
(excluding the t imber equivalent of 
impor ted pu lp ) . T h e state forests 
provide about 8 m i l l i o n i.e. i n ­
cluding unrecorded supplies. T h e 
projected d e m a n d for 1975 ( F A O 
report ) is between 17 a n d 20 m i l ­
l ion cu. f t . According to t h e same 
source, even i f a l l the wet zone 
forests are systemat ical ly managed , 
the m a x i m u m sustained output 
t h a t can be expected f r o m t h e m 
is about 5.6 mi l l ion cu. f t . Th is 
means t h a t ej/en i f we were to 
take measures to increase the out­
put of Umber f r o m h i t h e r t o inac­
cessible wet zone forests we wil l 
st i l l have to look elsewhere for the 
bulk of our fu tu re requirements of 
t imber. 

L e t us t u r n our a t ten t ion to 
the dry zone. T h i s region h a d a 
great reputa t ion i n the past as be­
ing the source of the h ighly pr ized 
t imbers l ike satin, ebony and hal-
mila which were popular i n the 
European markets . B u t these and 
other preferred species, have been 
selectively exploited over« the 
years, a n d they are now a rela­
t ively scarce commodi ty . 

O n e of t h e pecul iar features 
of the forests i n the , d r y zone 
is the pauci ty of regenerat ion 
of the dominants l ike palu and 
satin. Halmilla a lone of t h e useful 
species shows good n a t u r a l rege­
n e r a t i o n / T h e absence of regene­
ration of most of the dominants is 
indeed strange f r o m the ecological 
po in t of view if we consider the 
dry ' zone forest to be a c l imax 
ecosystem. 

. Another un fo r tuna te feature of 
the dry zone forest is t h a t most cf 
the pre fer red dominants a r e v very 
slow growing. Studies of the i n ­
crement of palu indicate t h a t this 
species takes something l ike 200 
years to reach a g i r t h of 6 ft . 
(Wi jes inghe, 1959) and satin is a l ­
most as s l o w g r o w l n g (Fernando 
1962). A t h i r d depressing feature 
of these forests Is the h i g h propor­
t ion of infer ior species. Selective 
exploi tat ion of t h e good species I n 
the past must undoubtedly have 
contr ibuted to this imbalance. 

Deta i led inventories of the dry 
zone forests were made for the 
f irst t i m e about 10 years ago on 
t h e j o i n t C a n a d a / C e y l o n project 
under the Colombo P l a n , a n d the 
da ta collected clearly show the poor 

- k Scientist's View 
qual i ty of the dry zone forests. T h e 
most a b u n d a n t apecies Ls wira 

(Drypetes sepiaris) which ac­
counts for 25 per cent of the to ta l 
s tanding volume of t imber i n the 

•dry zone. T h i s species is not used 
as a n industr ia l wood because of 
its poor form.. T h e next is pain 
(Manikara hexandra) w i t h 10.3 

per cent. T h i s is a good t imber 
species. T h e th i rd , Euphoria 
longana, is a shrub- species which , 
l ike wira is not used, a n d i t ac­
counts for 6 per cent of the 
volume. I n fact of the f i rst 20 
species (l isted according to ava i la ­
b i l i ty ) only 7 a re of h igh qual i ty 
a n d a l l these together account for 
only 26 per cent of the volume. 

T h e dry zone forests are clas­
sified as m e d i u m yield, low yield 
a n d unproduct ive I n the C a n a d a / 
Ceylon .project report . T h e percen­
tage of forests I n each of these 
categories a n d the standing volume 
per acre are given in the table 
below: 

. I n the f i rst l ine I have given 
only the percentages. ' since they 
m a y be a more rel iable guide as to 
the present s i tuat ion t h a n the ac­
tua l areas. T h e actual extents in 
al l three categories have decreased 

some areas which are selectively 
exploited on the basis of a speci­
fied g i r t h l imi t . T h e supply f r o m 
areas c leared for a l ienat ion Ls a 
once a n d for a l l mat te r , so t h a t 
i f we a re to assess t h e m a x i m u m 
capacity of the n a t u r a l forests for 
the sustained supply of Umber , we 
have to complete w h a t could be 

' obta ined on a selective fe l l ing basis 
f r o m areas t h a t w i l l be perma­
nent ly reta ined I n forest. O n 
this ibasls, I should est imate 2—3 
mi l l ion cu. f t . per year would be 
the m a x i m u m t h a t we could even­
tual ly expect f r o m the n a t u r a l for­
ests of t h e dry zone. W i t h i n the 
nex t decade or so we could expect 
a n increase i n the output of t i m ­
ber as the M a h a w e l i G a n g a Deve­
lopment scheme gets underway 
and more forests are cleared, bu t 
this- increase, i f i t does occur, wi l l 
be temporary a n d w i l l be follow­
ed by a sharp decline. T h e F A O 
report g l v e s a n est imate of 5.5 mi l ­
l ion cu. f t . per year as being the 
output t h a t c a n be expected on a 
cont inu ing basis f r o m the n a t u r a l 
forests of the dry and in te rmed i ­
ate zones. I t h i n k the F A O 
est imate is excessive. One 
reason for the eventual decline I n 
the output which I sa id wil l , occur 
is of course the decrease in the 

D a t a on the n a t u r a l forests' of the dry zone (Canada /Cey lon Project) 

Forest area In r e l a t i o n to Land 
„ area of dry zone 

T o t a l s tanding vol. per acre 
( i n cu. f t . ) 

VOL/acre (cu. f t . ) of trees of 
Class I ' a n d Class n species 
over 16" d iameter "at breast h t . 

since 1956 but the proport ion of 
each m a y be approximate ly the 
same now as then . 

T h e second l ine i n . the table 
gives the to ta l s tanding volume 
of a l l species. T h e . t h i r d l ine 
gives a picture of w h a t could in 
fac t be obtained when the forest 
is selecUveiy' exploited. These are 
extremely low yields by any stand­
a r d . 

A t present the recorded yield 
- f rom the dry a n d in termedia te zone 
forests according to the S ta te T i m ­
ber Corporat ion, amounts to about 
3A mi l l ion cu. f t . uer • a n n u m . T h i s 
includes the output f r o m areas 
wh ich are cleared for - a l ienat ion 
and for reforestat ion as well as 

M c d i o v a 
yield 

6 

1097 

180 

Low 
yield 

50 

701 

106 

U n p r o ­
ductive 

44 

309 

40 

area of forest, a n d another is t h a t 
because of the extremely low in ­
crement of the n a t u r a l forest, a t 
the present ra te of removal of 
wood, a longer recuperat ive period 
should be al lowed between succes­
sive fe l l ing operations. 

T h e capaci ty of the n a t u r a l 
forests of the island to produce 
our requirements of industr ia l 
wood is therefore severely restrict­
ed, a n d we , have increasingly to 
depend on forest p lanta t ions to 
produce our f u t u r e needs. 

( L . C. A. de S. Wijesinghe 
from "The role of forestry in 
the development of Ceylon's 
land resources". Presidential 
•Address SLAAS Section, B. 1971). 

E c o n o m i c R e v i e w , F e b r u a r y 1 9 7 8 13