As part of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s plans to establish a green economy, Sri Lanka would soon be given a new Climate Change Act, while a new Environment Act will also be drafted to replace the old Act, covering several areas, including reforestation and forest cover. Revealing these plans at an event on strategies and actions to accelerate Sri Lanka’s transition to a green growth pathway, President Wickremesinghe further said that Sri Lanka has the potential to establish a green economy, especially by way of renewable energy. In addition to the aforementioned legal reforms, the Government has prepared a Natural Adaptation Plan and National Environment Action Plan in order to ensure a green economy by 2050.

The President appears to be hopeful of utilising natural resources to support economic recovery, and this is not the first time that the Government discussed the initiative. Given the nature of the natural resources that Sri Lanka has, the country has a huge potential in achieving it, and therefore, these steps are a good move. The President’s plans also address the issue of the lack of adequately stringent and updated laws for the protection of the environment in Sri Lanka, which, according to environmentalists, is one of the major reasons for the hindrance to dealing with environmental destruction. Therefore, introducing laws to conserve natural resources is crucial.

However, the legal situation is merely one part of the challenge faced by Sri Lanka in protecting the environment. In fact, a great deal of these challenges stems from practical aspects of protecting the environment. If we look at the recent history concerning protecting Sri Lanka’s natural resources, it is evident that the majority of these challenges were a result of short-sighted environment-related decisions made by politicians and various other authorities. The number of ineffective decisions that were made by politicians to deal with the human-elephant conflict during the past two decades is a good example. At the same time, various irregularities and inadequacies on the part of the authorities, many of which have been reported in cases of deforestation and illegal mining activities, have contributed to these challenges as well. The lack of financial and human resources available for environmental conservation is another challenge.

The bottom line is that while laws could definitely be useful in addressing a number of environment conservation-related challenges, laws alone cannot resolve them. The practicality and enforcement of those laws are what bring about actual change, and what laws can achieve with regard to the above-mentioned challenges is limited. Therefore, the Government should support the country’s environment conservation efforts by ensuring that the politicians in charge of the environment possess adequate knowledge and experience to be able to make sound decisions in accordance with the relevant laws, policies, and practical realities, and that in addition to the laws, there is a strong institutional framework that prevents the authorities from engaging in illegal acts that hinder those efforts.

What is more, the Government should pay attention to obtaining the support of environmentalists and academics specialised in environmental conservation, which would reduce the politicisation of environment-related decisions, and would pave the way for a more scientific approach. That too is an important aspect of environmental conservation which Sri Lanka seems to have ignored in the recent past.

Without employing such a holistic approach, which also involves the encouragement of citizens, utilising natural resources for economic revival is unlikely to be successful.