February 2023
The Wilderness & Wildlife Conservation Trust
130 Reid Avenue , Colombo 04, Sri Lanka
Tel: +94 11 2589468/+94 773 544 382
Email: info@wwct.org
Executive Summary:
Remarkably, after two years of being heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, 2022 was largely Covid-19 free, but proved to be an equally challenging year. This was due to the economic crisis that hit Sri Lanka early in the year and its crippling effects are still being felt. In 2022 people in Sri Lanka were confined to their homes and schools were closed, not because of a virus but because of a massive economic failing that saw very severe fuel shortages as well as civil unrest resulting from the economic shocks. By the end of the year we were no longer lining up for 2 or 3 days for fuel and were able to access the field sites, but the newly imposed quotas (20L/week/vehicle) made field visits far less frequent than normal. Costs also spiraled out of control with a litre of diesel costing 121 Sri Lankan rupees (LKR) in January and 430 by October. Inflation also rose at ~70% with the Pound Sterling (GBP) worth 269 LKR in January and 435 LKR come July!
Due to these multiple constraints, WWCT was unable to accomplish as much as we had planned. We did, however, manage to have a full year of remote camera surveys on the Elbedda Ridge, an upland ridgeline running parallel to the Peak Ridge Forest Corridor (PRFC) and one of our targeted Corridors for Conservation study sites. This had been a central goal for 2022 and we are happy to report that it was successfully completed with a lot of new information obtained. Highlights include the identification of two animals that had their natal areas on PRFC, strengthening the evidence of connections between ridgelines. We also continued with our monitoring of PRFC, although due to an increase in camera thefts, this was scaled back. Monitoring of the Yala buffer zone also continued throughout 2022 as did the patch forest surveying in Sigiriya, as well as at a new patch site in the south-east of the island. In Sigiriya, we were happy to record the continued presence of a resident female who has been there for 5 years and counting. By now, across these varied unprotected sites, we have seen a pattern of long-term residency, which provides hope that these often-overlooked landscapes are playing a vital role in the long term conservation of leopards in Sri Lanka.
The reforestation of the upland ridges remains a massive challenge, with progress slow. In 2022 we changed tactics, maintaining saplings in the nurseries for longer and only planting them when they were 3+ feet tall. This has reduced our losses to browsing ungulates, but the success rate remains fairly low. We do have almost 3000 saplings growing well in the two existing nurseries and we are determined to turn a corner with the re-forestation in 2023! A third forest plant nursery, at the actual planting site elevation is under construction and we hope acclimatization of saplings here will be part of the solution.
In terms of human-leopard co-existence, we had 10 confirmed leopard deaths in 2022 including 5 killed by snares. We continued with anti-snare work and have put considerable effort into getting signage onto the PRFC landscape making people aware of the initiative and providing guidance for behavior. One of our MSc students conducted analysis of leopard diet in this tea estate landscape, and we were heartened to see that the percentage of domestic species (dogs) in the diet appears even lower than our initial, more limited sampling showed. This evidence will be useful in putting the leopard “threat” in context in this landscape.
Repeated school closures made Awareness programs very difficult to organize even if we had managed to secure sufficient fuel to access sites. However, six awareness programs were conducted, reaching ~500 individuals in the highland estates, plus ~ 150 at lectures in other locations. More are planned for 2023.