Sustainable development framework for an environmentally sensitive area: the case of Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka

Abstract

This paper scrutinizes the factors, processes and causes, which need to be considered in developing a sustainable development framework for environmentally sensitive areas, through a case study in Sri Lanka. The environmentally sensitive areas of the Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka has been selected for the indepth study of the relationship between social systems and environmental systems. The paper clarifies the issues, which are being faced by the permanent settlers in the region and attempts to forecast situation that may occur in immediate future. The author uses two major research strategies; (1) a quantitative analysis of country, provincial and divisional-level data and (2) three case studies in three different villages in environmentally sensitive areas of Sabaragamuwa Province. Many people who live in this environmentally sensitive area reveal the complexities of environment-society relations which they had experienced. Sometimes such understandings may differ from mainstream environmentalism or sustainable development discourse: they are generally couched in terms of defending not only particular environments, but also the lives and livelihoods that those environments could sustain. For people in the region who derive their livelihood from the forests, fields, and waters around them, sustainability is intimately related to rights of communal ownership, collectively sharing indigenous knowledge, cultural economy, religious rituals, and freedom while the externally imposed program seek to promote visions alien to them which impose how to conserve or develop the environments they depend upon. The understanding of the links between environmental sustainability and social equity is critical if development is to expand human freedom for current and future generations. The remarkable progress in human development over recent decades, which has been documented in Human Development Reports cannot continue without making bold steps to reduce both environmental risk and inequality, globally as well as locally. Hence, for the successful achievement of sustainable development targets at the global level, it is essential to formulate sustainable development planning at local (subnational) or micro regional level.