By Ranil Senanayake
W. H. P. W. Seneviratne (Trees, Energy and Loans — a rejoinder) has raised some questions in terms of interpretation of history, public accountability and abuse of parliamentary privilege. Subjects, that I will be happy to discuss in the light of national interest. To discuss the vision of the Hon. D. S. Senanayake, is indeed a privilege in these confused times. So let us take Mr. Seneviratne’s assertion that:

"His (DS’s) dynamic drive helped and encouraged the large scale planting of Eucalyptus and other ‘GROWABLE’ species on barren inhospitable land in the Montane Zone".

As I maintain, the Forest Department was not always ineffective, the early history of the department produced amazing work. The mixed plantations that were established early in the last century, the research on the growth and propagation of Sri Lankan trees, the work on minor forest products made this nation a leader in forestry knowledge. In DS’s time the level of experimentation was astounding. The polyculture trials of the Kurunegala district and the monoculture trials of the Uva district are still there for us to see. At that time, forestry was not seen as even aged monoculture plantation establishment only. Unfortunately, the GROWABLE species that were identified as the only possibilities on the barren, inhospitable, Montane Zone were only those species suggested by the people who received a very narrow training on land sustainability and biodiversity. The tragedy of the situation is that, while these ‘researchers’ were planting out species suggested by the foreign consultants, poor traditional villagers were successfully replanting the same lands with a diversity of species not identified as GROWABLE by the forestry experts. One only has to visit the monoculture plantations established all over Sri Lanka on these ‘barren and inhospitable’ lands to see that where ever there is private land or encroachable land, the villager has successfully established a diverse forest garden.

It is good to know that the World Bank and the ADB want trees, trees and more trees. At one time the British Raj wanted the same, it was rubber trees, coconut trees and tea. At least the WB and ADB are not so choosy. It is exactly this blind faith in the World Bank or ADB, the blind faith in the acceptance of everything prescribed by the multilateral banking system that was the very point of my article. It was the ignoring of traditional knowledge and the tyranny of foreign consultants that have brought about the problem in the first place. As was pointed out before, these institutions are the product of the Bretteon Woods agreements to extract Third World debt. In this context, a recent report suggests that:

"The Bank and the Fund have made full use of the new leverage over Third World economies that accrued to them during the debt crisis of 1973 and 1982. Bank and the IMF launched a policy to structurally adjust the Third World by deflating their economies and demanding a withdrawal of government not only from public enterprise but also from compassionate support of the basic health and welfare of the most vulnerable. Exports to earn foreign exchange were privileged over almost all production of food and other goods for domestic use. This restructuring was highly successful from the point of view of the private banks that got $178 billion out of the South between 1984 and 1990 alone. Yet Third World debt continued to grow, reaching $1,300 billion by 1992. Much of this debt has shifted; particularly in the case of Africa from private banks to the IMF and the World Bank themselves. The stark fact that the Fund and the Bank now operate with reverse capital flows, in other words they take more money out of the Third World than they put back in is sobering for those who believed these institutions were there to help."

While it is a total red herring that the planting of trees, more trees and still more trees is the answer to the absorption of fossil fuel derived carbon dioxide, it is an avenue through which we could earn some money. This a subject that I will dwell on in greater depth in a subsequent article. The recent response from the Ministry of Forestry and environment for the establishment of a BOI company to capitalize on this carbon trading economy was to turn it down. Thus, it seems that they are opposed to carbon trading; perhaps there are other vested interests being protected in this arena.

In terms of history then, it seems clear that the early days of forestry in this country provided us with some brilliant examples while the recent past with its focus on fast growing, monoculture plantations have completely missed the fundamental truth that a forest is comprised by far more than just trees. To see a forest as only trees, trees and more trees, is indeed to see a forest as unprocessed wood or fibre. A better understanding of a forest by those who claim to know forests has to improve, and that understanding be demonstrated by the policy instruments that govern forestry.

Now, to the more personal part of the query; where questions regarding public accountability and abuse of parliamentary privilege need to be discussed. Yes, I remember being appointed to advise the Forest Dept. and Timber Corporation on reforestation and plant maintenance. I also remember how as a systems ecologist evaluating the new projects, I opposed a project to provide 24,000 acres of irrigated land in the Mahaveli system to grow Oil Palms. The growing of irrigated Oil Palm in the dry zone is as practical as growing irrigated teak in the arid zone. Further, I reasoned that in a dry flow year it would be the Sri Lankan small farmers who would suffer as the tree crops would need the first available stocks of water. I remember how I designed Analog Forests for Watawela with the opposition of the ‘monoculture foresters’ all about me. I also remember that the Oil Palm project was stopped due to the opposition to it and the minister was reported to have been ‘furious’, so much so that I was sacked in 24 hours and was libelled in Parliament. Of course the cowardly politician who claimed that I was not a qualified ecologist and that I had obtained my degree in a postal tuition course, was protected by parliamentary privilege. When the Hon. Laxman Jayakody tabled my credentials in Parliament to correct the record, this politician did not even have the good manners to afford an apology. It also a fact that since then, for approximately twenty years I have been victimized by the forestry establishment in Sri Lanka. I have not had a single job in this country since that episode in defending the small farmers of Sri Lanka and asking for new thinking in forestry. They have forced me to work out of Sri Lanka where I am accepted as a consultant by eight other nations, but in Sri Lanka I use the funds earned abroad to help build biodiversity into the rural countryside and to help Sri Lankan farmers develop sustainable production systems.

I know that my experiments begun with the State Timber Corporation and the Land Development Department were abandoned after the above-mentioned episode. However, the Kohomba Tree Avenue on the way to the airport and much of the landscaping work still remains as a testimony. My suggestions for a new approach to forestry was thrown out of the window as ‘impractical’, but I did not allow the mean and small-minded actions of the monoculture mafia to stop me. Because of my conviction that Sri Lanka needed a better approach to forestry, I sold my property in Colombo, purchased a property in the Uva hills and moved up to Mirahawatte to live there for eight years growing and researching a forestry technique that would answer the needs of rehabilitating forest environments. The work was funded and supported by myself and a group of volunteers, who often had to work while being victimized by the monoculture mafia. My work has now been accepted in Australia, the Philippines, Kenya, Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Canada, Brazil and the US, but in Sri Lanka the forestry establishment continues to ignore it.

The way to the Analog Forestry trials at Mirahawatte is to take the Bandarawela-Welimada Road to the village of Mirahawatte. From here take the road to Malpota; 1.5 km on this road is the Belipola Arboretum and Analog Forestry trials. Call 057-45033 for an appointment. The public is welcome to visit and see for themselves the alternative to the monoculture madness and to see what a real understanding of forests can do to barren, inhospitable lands in the Montane Zone. Mr. Seneviratne is most welcome to be awed.