Project Detail

Restoration and Sustainable Management of Madinnagoda Wetland Ecosystem

The objective of this project is to restore and conserve the marsh land ecosystems of Madinnagoda wetland which is part of the Kolonnawa wetland system. This objective will be achieved predominantly through a participatory action and awareness. Ground level project interventions will be implemented through the participation of community organizations in the GN divisions. As certain project interventions will cover the entire Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte DS Division, the total population of 107,925 will directly or indirectly benefit from the proposed project. However, more focus will be on GN divisions located bordering the Madinnagoda which account for a population of over 40,000 individuals. Additionally, visitors to the area, community associations, low-income households and the Colombo region as a whole will benefit through urban green-space/wetland restoration and sustainable management of Madinnagoda wetland ecosystem.

As a consequence of abandoning the wetland for a long period of time, this natural ecosystem has been adversely affected. Additionally, the spread of invasive wetland plant species in the wetlands has become a major concern. Hence, the proposed project is designed to restore approximately 48ha of Madinnagoda wetland through community participation while providing numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits to a broader community. This includes establishing wetland arboretum, water quality monitoring lab and a wetland conservation education center in a 5ha land area that will further serve as an outdoor educational laboratory/knowledge hub for the school children, university students and the general public.

The restoration of Madinnagoda wetland ecosystem will be highly important for urban biodiversity conservation. The location has been identified as one of the important habitats for wild fishing cat, which is a vulnerable species recorded in Sri Lanka and several mammal species. The restored wetland will provide valuable breeding, foraging and roosting cover specifically for native and migratory water birds. Improved conditions in the wetlands will benefit other fauna including freshwater fish, reptiles, amphibians, Odonates and butterflies and small mammals. Habitat restoration will further increase the buffering capacity of the wetland, and thus facilitating flood retention. Such environmental benefits extend beyond boundaries of the project area.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

University of Sri Jayewardenepura (Center for Sustainability)

Country:

Sri lanka

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity

Operational Phase:

OP6 - Y3 (Jul17 - Jun 18)

Grant Amount:

US$ 50,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 70,321.82

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 24,723.69

Project Number:

SRL/SGP/OP6/STAR/BD/2018/17

Start Date:

4/2018

End Date:

4/2022

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

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Project Characteristics and Results

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

A web based platform will be developed to distribute the scientific information of the wetland to the general community. Thorough this web based platform it is expected that surface and ground water quality of the wetland, researches carried out based on the wetland, flooding information and continuous updates on the water levels of the wetland and the surrounding canal system etc. to be published. The web will be daily updated by the CFS staff using scientific information. In addition, the proposed awareness programmes are targeted to increase awareness among school children, university students, policy generators and other responsible authorities, neighbouring community and the visitors on urban wetlands. Awareness boards will be established at several stages of project completion describing the importance of an urban wetland, water purification mechanisms, wetland flora and fauna species found in the premises, water quality testing mechanisms used inside the wetland etc. It is expected that this information will flow to the wider community. Practical experience will be given to interested parties on water quality testing, wetland functionality, etc. As an effort to raise awareness on the importance of Colombo wetlands, scientific short documentaries on various aspects of wetlands and web-based interactive wetland educational programs will be developed with the assistance of CFS, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. These will be made available through on online platform to a wider community (for the entire Colombo wetland landscape and beyond) and also be made accessible via mobile devices.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

Community participation is a critical factor in the project benefiting the local community by engaging them in project activities, hence, maximum community engagement in project activities is expected. It will also generate additional job opportunities to locals around the park and will provide educational eco-tourism experience to visitors. The project will make use of participation, comments and knowledge of local community in all stages of the project; project planning and designing at initial stages and at the beginning of each activity, project implementation, and at monitoring and evaluation stages. Community members and CBOs will be actively engaged in activities and community members will be hired for work where necessary. Awareness campaigns will also be conducted prior to project implementation to improve knowledge of the target stakeholders: community, school children, neighboring business community and CBOs. Community awareness will ensure sustainable conservation of the wetland ecosystem in Madinnagoda. Additionally, they will be further engaged in disseminating knowledge to other members of their respective associations and communities. At least 50 members of civil society organizations and university community will actively engage in research and development, project preparation and implementation in pursuit of biodiversity conservation and enhancement of ecosystem services in Madinnagoda wetland and in promoting eco-tourism.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

Proposed project activities will ensure the participation of residents in the area and CBOs in native wetland species replanting, nursery establishment, maintenance activities, paddy cultivation, water purification system development and other project activities. Knowledge will be provided for community and farmer awareness on organic farming, home gardening practices and organic paddy cultivation. Native paddy varieties, green leaves will be cultivated in the allocated zones with community participation using organic farming methods. Productivity and sustainability of smallholder agro-ecosystem will be enhanced as local community will be supported by promoting organic paddy farming cultivation in the wetland ecosystem. Two plant nurseries will be established with community support to supply the seedlings for replantation activities and the low income groups will be given the priority. Selected groups will be given financial and technical assistance to establish plant nurseries and the produced seedlings will be purchased from these nurseries; thus providing income for locals. In order to promote eco-tourism in the wetland arboretum, necessary infrastructure (wooden decks, nature trails, bird watching platforms and towers, boats) will be built. This will generate additional job opportunities to locals around the park. Training on ecotourism operations will be provided for selected individuals from the community. CFS will also promote household scale business opportunities such as hand crafts manufacturing from reed harvested from the wetland cleared areas. Small number from the community will be given the removed reed as raw materials to initiate their businesses.

Capacity - Building Component

The arboretum will also provide education and research opportunities to interested parties. Therefore research opportunities will be developed. A research platform will be established to support and provide opportunities to research students. The proposed project is designed to establish water quality monitoring laboratory and a wetland conservation education center that will further serve as an outdoor educational laboratory/knowledge hub for the school children, university students and the general public. Capacity building activities such as awareness programmes and training programs will be conducted to the stakeholders and other interested parties throughout the project period.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

The project activities are developed targeting research students from government and private universities, school children, foreign researchers, volunteers and other interested parties who are engaged in research and development activities centering Madinnagoda wetland and its wetland functions. Therefore sharing the knowledge and importance of the Madinnagoda urban wetland is the key purpose of the project. The built laboratory will be the first which is established in an urban wetland targeting water quality testing of wetlands in Sri Lanka. Also the established arboretum will be a living museum of the wetland flora which will be most useful for the above mentioned targeted crowd to conduct their research activities. One of the other objectives is to engage school children and the visitors of the wetland in water quality testing and testing techniques by providing them with practical experience. School children will get practical knowledge on water quality testing techniques which will support their school curriculum. Also researchers could conduct their experiments using the water purification mechanisms, reed beds, rain gardens etc. and the arboretum, eco-tourism operations. The web based platform is also a knowledge based product which will be a result of project activities. This will be a place where all the scientific information valuable for the general public and researchers are readily available. The above mentioned project activities are expected to support existing structures, competencies, knowledge of the stakeholders and create new culture in Sri Lanka to value urban wetlands while conserving them, to build up an external network to support future sustainable utilization of the wetlands.

Notable Community Participation

The proposed project is designed to restore approximately 48ha of Madinnagoda wetland through community participation while providing numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits to a broader community. This includes establishing wetland arboretum, water quality monitoring lab and a wetland conservation education center in an 8ha land area that will further serve as an outdoor educational laboratory/knowledge hub for the school children, university students and the general public. The main target group of the above mentioned activities are youth groups consisting of government and private university students, students engaged in research, school children and visitors to the wetland. It is expected that around 150 students per year will take part in water quality analysis research and other testing activities throughout a year. In addition young researches will be given space and lab facilities to conduct their research on wetland functions, climate change, bio diversity conservation, water purification etc. Also young volunteers are encouraged to participate in project activities such as native species replanting, nursery establishment activities, water sampling and testing, eco-tourism activities etc. Youth are targeted in awareness programmes conducted in the wetland after the establishment of the wetland education center.

Gender Focus

Throughout the project period any imbalance between the roles of women and men in the community is not intended and both parties are planned to be given similar benefits throughout the project period and thereafter. Both men and women are given similar opportunities in developing the urban wetland through recreational activities such as eco-tourism, nature interpretation, boat riding services, handcrafts and nursery activities. Women are given priority in hand-crafts manufacturing at household level using the resources of Madinnagoda wetland e.g. reed species. Men will be given employment opportunities in eco-tourism operations at the wetland e.g. boat ride operators, interpretations and other recreational activities. Both will be given chances to initiate small scale businesses around the wetland targeting the visitors to the wetland. Labour opportunities will be given to neighbouring community in land preparation, earthworks, nursery establishment and maintenance activities. A plot of land of the wetland will be allocated for native paddy varieties cultivation as an initiative to establish urban food security in Colombo area. This activity will also engage neighbouring community to cultivate these varieties.

Policy Impact

Yes. Currently waste water from neighboring lands are released to the canal systems surrounding the wetland and this has increased the nutrient and pollutants load in the surface and ground waters of the wetland leading to serious eutrophication issues. To understand the water quality of both surface and ground water at a landscape level, it is necessary to carry out periodical testing of water quality. Since the on-site water quality testing facilities are not available, a laboratory will be established for water quality testing. Periodical water quality monitoring reports which will be available through the web based platform can be used to monitor and develop as an indicator based on environmental policies and regulations on the release of treated or un-treated household or industrial effluents to a marshland or surrounding canal systems.

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