Anoja Wickramasinghe

Nontimber forest product gathering in Ritigala forest (Sri Lanka): Household strategies and community differentiation

Sri Lanka has a long tradition of forest product use. The relationship of people with a dry zone forest was studied using a sample of 48 households in two villages that varied in distance to the forest and access to the market. All households interviewed collected subsistence forest products and a majority of them also collected commercial products. The daily peak-season income from commercial gathering was 4.5 to 7.7 times the daily labor wage. There is a strong gender specialization, with commercial gathering dominated by men whereas subsistence gathering is almost exclusively the task of women. The average forest-derived household income in the village closer to the forest and with better market access was nearly double that of the other village. Family size as a proxy of labor availability was the main discriminating factor between those households who did and those who did not gather commercial products. A small inverse relationship between forest gathering and size of household agricultural land (particularly paddy rice) was observed. No clear relationship was found between total household income and forest derived income, contradicting the view that commercial forest gathering is an exclusive activity of the poorest households.

Gender and health issues in the biomass energy cycle: impediments to sustainable development

Biomass-based energy generation is at the heart of rural life, food and nutrition in particular. Sri Lanka relies heavily on biomass for energy generation in the domestic sector, in which nearly 8 million tonnes (Mt) of biomass is consumed annually. The household sector has been able to optimize its biomass use, without intervention by the state, through the involvement of women. The role of women has been taken for granted in relation to their traditional gender role, by which socially accepted and culturally sensitive imbalances have been established. Health issues pervade the biomass cycle from the stage of biomass-gathering to its end-use. Women, who link the outdoor biomass resource environment with domestic consumption, initiate the cycle and traverse it repeatedly. This study focuses on the physical exhaustion, psychological deterioration, and ill-health generated by the cycle, as reported by participants in the study. The self-perceived problems are taken as testimonies of the multiple health implications of the biomass cycle. Women in the cycle enhance the consumption value of biomass by integrating it into human well-being, and food and nutritional security. Mens labour appears in the form of a helping hand on occasionally performed tasks. The gender differentiation of activities and their health repercussions gives rise to the need for a wider debate on social justice for womens health, their rights over resources, and also occupational and workplace security. The predominant imbalances in the biomass cycle are nurtured by the conceptualization of biomass as a “free commodity”, “womens work”, and the “gender” ideology. The health risks and the self-reported ailments are disproportionately distributed and the repercussions suffered by women in their effort of ensuring household energy security are serious. Problems that women deal with in the outdoor sphere during procuring and transporting are specific to their occupations in this cycle and their gender. It is clear that these issues confront both the concepts of sustainability and social justice. This paper is organized with the intention of discussing conceptual issues and disseminating the findings of research conducted in Sri Lanka. Data presented in this paper were gathered through a questionnaire-based survey administered to 720 households and through field discussions, observations and ethnographic records. Reference to the spatial location is omitted so as to avoid lengthy discussions on ecological aspects.

Challenges of sustainable recovery processes in tsunami affected communities

Purpose – Sustainable housing and community recovery processes in the aftermath of tsunamis have to cope with direct impacts, such as fatalities, destroyed buildings, and loss of economic assets, as well as indirect impacts caused by shortcomings in recovery management. Recent studies on post‐tsunami recovery tend to focus on direct impacts, ranging from monitoring to prevention studies. Less attention is paid to recovery as a complex bundle of multi‐agent processes causing subsequent problems.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents results from field studies evaluating post‐tsunami recovery processes in Sri Lanka against the concept of sustainable housing and community recovery. Semi‐structured observations and interviews were conducted on eight sites in the south‐western part of Sri Lanka during field visits 2005‐2006. The research involved beneficiaries and other citizens, representatives from government and administration, field workers (non‐governmental organizations), and scientists.Finding...

WOMEN AND MINORITY GROUPS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

The work reported here explores how women and indigenous groups could potentially contribute to the process of environmental management. Women, indigenous communities and the poor are minorities due to their powerlessness. The result is that their opinions are not sought and minorities are not treated as contributors to modern development interventions. The objective of this paper is to examine how local knowledge and strategies contribute to the management of the resources of local environments. It is seen that women are marginalized in two ways. On the one hand, due to their gender, women are socialized as homemakers and family labour in farming and the management of other resources. On the other hand, women lack resources. Indigenous groups are marginalized due to the fact that their environmental management methods are not technical and cannot be institutionalized. The information extracted from two field studies conducted in Sri Lanka reveals that for womens and indigenous minority groups environmental management is an integral part of their resource use and therefore integrating locally evolved strategies is a way to stabilize, restore and sustain the survival systems.

Modelling forest growth - environment relationships: theory and applications.

Abstract Limitations to the use of multiple-regression-based models of tree growth or forest productivity highlight the need for more universal deterministic models of forest-environment relationships. Modelling can be based upon the close relationship observed between actual evapotranspiration during the growing season and vegetation growth. A simple model using this relationship is presented and results from applying it to 38 sites throughout Britain are discussed. It is noted that the model predicts volumetric growth better than basal area or diameter growth, and that model performance is generally acceptable except in a few specific areas. Inter-site variations in the relationship between estimated effective evapotranspiration and tree growth are examined and potential applications and development of the model discussed.

Development intervention and the changing status of rural women in Sri Lanka

Abstract After one decade of implementing a strategy of integrated rural development in Sri Lanka, this is the first study to evaluate the impact of this state intervention on women at a national level. Examination of 753 womens projects reveals that almost 85% of the projects are successful in terms of their income generation. To a woman in the rural sector achieving an income offers financial strength in both the domestic sphere and in society. Yet much of these earnings is spent on family welfare and very little is spent to meet their own needs. The training in leadership, managerial skills and social participation achieved through the program is a noteworthy feature. However, the broader objectives of sharing development benefits on equal terms with men have not been met because women have been identified as a separate group. This type of development effort results in relatively isolated womens programs subordinate to mainstream development. Even the social status gained by women is restricted to their own activity groups where male leadership is absent. Under such circumstances, the need to integrate women into the mainstream of rural development is emphasized.