From Reef to Rainforest Part 2 (Sinharaja)
OSC’s annual Geography IA field study combines face-to-face interviews in the Kudawa area with biodiversity encounters in and around Sinharaja’s rainforest. Students worked in small teams to interview a broad range of respondents and learn about their home gardens, and lives in a challenging economic situation. The emblematic Sri Lanka Blue Magie (Urocissa ornata) is a species that we saw at our guest house (Martin’s Jungle Lodge) and heard on the edges of the forest boundary during the course of the fieldwork.
Within a week of returning from the Maldives (see previous post) I was in the field again-this time in the northwestern edges of Sri Lanka’s Sinharaja rainforest. This was the 19th OSC group that I have brought here (not including DofE teams). Villagers and Forest Department officials protecting the World Heritage Site are familiar with OSC groups and our studies are based on these relationships. Four of the students who had been on the Maldives field study were also in the Geography class, so the five of us were really immersed in field-based experiential education in May! Our goal was to conduct a household survey that would help students write individual internal assessment reports. This year’s cohort included six students with the support of three adults. Desline Attanayake was back again providing key logistical support and helping the students to make bridges with the community. Our friend Sushma Sen, a former KIS & Woodstock teacher who has been working in the OSC math department for the last two years, joined us. This year’s field study was characterized by solid data collection (we ended up with 58 complete surveys), relatively good weather (with almost no rain during the days) and rich encounters with a variety of people and rainforest creatures.
Portraits from Kudawa (clockwise from upper left): Desline and Mali on the trail to the Sinharaja research center, the artist Iresha and her husband at Kudawa bridge, guide Ranjit sporting a new Sinahraja t-shirt, Sushma going to see Sri Lanka frogmouths, the author and the six Class of 2024 students, Inoka the granddaughter-in-law of Martin Wijesinghe, Indramanaya cooking up (exceedingly delicious) pol-rotis on a granite slab, owner at the spurfowl home at Katala Patala. Bottom: A classic home garden scene with a traditional adobe house (the owners have moved into a cement block home while keeping the older structure intact).
Setting the Course
I usually try to visit Sinharaja and stay at Martin’s once or twice in the months preceding our Geography field study. This year I went in February and was accompanied by several friends including Nirosha, Rumeth & Priyanath. This spring trip was more personal and allowed me to focus on getting pictures of birds, amphibians and other species. It is also a time when migrants are sound and there is potential to see and photograph rarities. Many of the species from this post were photographed on that visit. It was surprisingly wetter in February than May-the complete opposite of what you would normally expect.
Sinharaja amphibians and butterflies (taken in February). From top: Long-snouted tree frog (Taruga longinasus), Purple Mormon (Papilio polymnestor), Ceylon tree nymph (Idea iasonia) Hallow snouted shrub frog (Pseudophilautus cavirostris)
Common Survey Analysis & Findings (thus far)
My approach to gathering sufficient quantitative data for the Geography IA continues to involve using a common survey with a variety of questions that help each student answer their own fieldwork (research) question. We now have a pool of standard questions that stay the same every year -this allows longitudinal analysis. Students then add their own questions focusing on themes of energy, overall wealth, education, health and resources. There were significant findings from the 2023 survey. Firstly, students gained an appreciation for the hard work and challenges of running a home garden in Sri Lanka. Secondly, we saw that there had been a spike in electricity costs mirroring national trends. Tourism to Sinharaja is still recovering and visitor numbers are not yet back to pre-pandemic levels. Further analysis is underway as the students crunch the numbers over the summer. They will hand in rough drafts that I give feedback on before the final IA is submitted in October.
Examples of the home gardens near Kudawa. Virtually every plant in the garden serves some useful purpose that helps farmers be close to self-sufficiency in terms of food needs.
Home gardens are small private holdings where families practice a combination of subsistence and (small-scale) commercial agriculture. The home of Kudawa almost all depend on tea, grown on relatively small plots (1 -2 acres). Families are versatile and creative with other crops that they grow (manioc, banana, cinnamon, papaya, coconut etc.). Self-sufficiency in a time of economic challenge is a benefit but home gardens struggle to stay out of poverty. The 2019 import ban on key inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) greatly affected yields- something that our results showed. Several families now have one or two members that work as Forest Department employees or as private guides. This collage shows a work shed of a home garden near Katala Patala.
VIDEO INTERVIEWS
Map from ESRi’s Survey 123 showing responses from the IA survey on electricity usage in 2023.
MAP OF 2023 WALKS
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1Lu6WJfXJlcK8_gNKtjcFds06YvhLYNg&usp=sharing
2023 OSC Geography class with their teachers, Chandralatha, her sister & Chamara the guide at Martin’s Lodge.
PAST BLOG POSTS ON SINHARAJA IA
Geography IA Trip 2021 (Cancelled because of COVID)
SELECTED REFERENCES
De Silva, Anslem and Kanishka Ukuwela & Dilan Chathuranga. A Photographic Guide to the Amphibians of Sri Lanka. Oxford: John Beaufoy Publishing, 2021. Print.
DeZoysa, Neela and Rhyana Raheem. Sinharaja: A Rainforest in Sri Lanka. Colombo: March for Conservation, 1990. Print.
Geiger, Klaus. “Characterizing the traditional tree-garden systems of southwest Sri Lanka.” Tropical Resources (Yale School of the Environment Tropical Resources Institue). 2014. Web.
Gunatilleke, C.V.S, et al. Ecology of Sinharaja Rain Forest and the Forest Dynamics Plot in Sri Lanka’s Natural World Heritage Site. Colombo: WHT Publications, 2004. Print.
Humke, Matthew. Tourism Assessment Report: Sinharaja Forest Reserve Complex. Colombo: Ecosystem Conservation and Management Project (ESCAMP).July 2018. Web. Kotagama, Sarath W and Eben Goodale. “The composition and spatial organization of mixed-species flocks in a Sri Lankan rainforest.” Forktail. 2004. Print & Web.
Liyanage, L. P. K. et al. “Assessment of Tourist and Community Perception with Regard to Tourism Sustainability Indicators: A Case Study of Sinharaja World Heritage Rainforest, Sri Lanka.” World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Social and Business Sciences. Vol 12 No. 7. 2018. Web.
Lockwood, Ian. “Into the Wet: Field Notes From Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone.” Sanctuary Asia. August/September 2007. 3-11. Print. PDF.
Lockwood, Ian. “Montane Biodiversity in the Land of Serendipity.” Sanctuary Asia. July 2010. Print.
Lockwood, Ian. “Sinharaja: The Heart of South Asian Biodiversity.” Sanctuary Asia. April 2020. PDF
Singhalage Darshani, Nadeera Weerasinghe and Gehan de Silva Wijeratne. A Naturalist’s Guide to the Flowers of Sri Lanka. Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2018. Print.
Sinharaja Forest Reserve: 2020 Conservation Outlook Assessment. IUCN. Web.
Sri Lanka Survey Department. Sheets 80_x & 81_x (1:10,000) 2nd Edition. Colombo: 2017. Maps & Spatial Data.
Warakagoda. Deepal et. al. Birds of Sri Lanka (Helm Field Guides). London: Helms Guides, 2012. Print.
Wijeyeratne, Gehan de Silva. Sri Lankan Wildlife (Bradt Guides). Bucks, England: Bradt Travel Ltd. 2007. Print.
Vigallon, S. The Sinharaja Guidebook for Eco-Tourists. Colombo: Stamford Lake Publications, 2007. Print.
Such a nice post again with great photos, as usual! Looks like they put up a railing on Moulawella? That appears to be new.
myzoneisbirding
2023-08-12 at 3:44 pm