February 2024
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:
After several years of external challenges, from access restrictions post Easter Bombings of 2019, two years of Covid-19 restrictions and a full year of severe economic challenges, 2023 saw some stability. Although the economic situation in Sri Lanka remains difficult with prices of all goods rising dramatically in 2022, there is better availability, with fuel expensive but accessible, and other goods the same.
WWCT maintained its focus in 2023 for long-term leopard conservation in Sri Lanka, continuing monitoring across multiple sites and habitats.
A key milestone was achieved early in the year with the signing of the Elbedda Ridge Corridor (ERC) Memorandum of Understanding with Kelani Valley Plantations Ltd (KVPL), the Regional Plantation Company that operates all of the 7 partner tea estates along the southern and western bounds of ERC. KVPL has been an enthusiastic partner and has embraced the opportunity to maintain this identified conservation corridor. A well-received progress and awareness meeting – in conjunction with the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) – in November, has kept up momentum.
Placement of a wider array of remote camera stations lower down on the ridge has provided considerable new information and further expanded our understanding of leopard spatial dynamics in this area. ERC currently holds a resident leopard population of 17.
The Peak Ridge Forrest Corridor leopards, current resident population of minimum 11, continue to teach us well, with one of the resident females – who we have now tracked for 8 years – having what is at least her 5th litter of cubs in 2023. This would have seemed a remarkable piece of information just a few years ago, but we now realize that this long-term occupancy, and resilience in the face of fairly intense human activity, is not especially uncommon for leopards here.
Importantly, we are planning on expanding this ridgeline protection model towards other highland connections in 2024.
As hoped, the reforestation of the PRFC site has improved in 2023. in terms of sapling success rate, helped by careful, individual care and an improved planting regime. The long, rainy second half of the year also helped to ensure adequate moisture in what can be a very dry part of the landscape. Several hundred trees were planted in 2023 and as of the end of the year almost all were still surviving. The early part of 2024 – the dry season in the hills – will be key to knowing that our re-wildling efforts are working.
The Yala Buffer zone monitoring suffered through the first 2/3 of the year due to widespread camera malfunction and issues with partner responsibilities, but by years’ end, after WWCT resumed full responsibility of field checks and new equipment was re-deployed, monitoring was resumed. There has been a concerning complete turnover of individuals in this region, continued data will confirm the status of leopards here.
We were excited to re-start monitoring work in the Gal Oya National Park region. A number of remote cameras were set-up in the unprotected slash-and-burn landscape west of the NP, and although access was restricted due to heavy flooding in December, interesting information is being obtained.
A similar number of confirmed island-wide leopard deaths (9) to the past couple of years was recorded. This is both negative (that the number has not reduced) and positive (that the number has not increased). Most known deaths continue to be in the Central Highlands and caused by snares. WWCT conducted 13 environmental art competitions, 10 dedicated school awareness programs and 15 community awareness programs in this region in 2023. We will be expanding these outreach activities in upcoming years as we continue to encourage and maintain human-leopard co-existence here.
Finally, WWCT participation in the inaugural Global Leopard Conference (GLC) in 2023 was a fantastic opportunity to discuss ongoing work with the international community and to hear extensively – and learn a great deal – from the international leopard research community. Further exposure of WWCT activities came from BBC television, a French documentary on Yala and a WWCT-authored newspaper series.