THE PATCH FOREST PROJECT - DUCKWARI FOREST, KNUCKLES AREA
Publications:
Kittle, A.M., P.H.S.C. Kumara, D.G. Pathirathna, H.K.N. Sanjeewani, H.T.J. Seneviratne, and A.C. Watson. 2016. A comparison of floral and faunal diversity between two small, disturbed forest patches in Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands. WildLanka 4(3):133-141
A wildcat presence/absence and general biodiversity survey was conducted on this private secondary forest land in close proximity to the Knuckles range. WWCT conducted this work as part of a student project (Fig.1) and in keeping with our ongoing assessment of Patch Forest importance; this work was done at the invitation of Finlays Private Limited one of Sri Lanka’s largest tea and private landowners, during the period of 2011/12.
This area of Duckwari has five isolated peaks of patch forests and we wanted to understand the role, if any, these peak forests were playing in leopard, wildcat and biodiversity conservation in this Central Highland area of Sri Lanka close to the Knuckles conservation reserve which holds high levels of biodiversity and endemism.
