The Government announced that new sawmills or carpentry workshops would not be registered in future. The President is to amend the 1896/26 Timber Mill Registration Special Gazette dated 2014.12.03, the ministry said in a statement. He said that traditional sawmills would not be banned under the proposed amendments and that only mobile sawmills would be banned with effect from December 31, 2022. Mahaweli Development and Environment State Minister Ajith Mannapperuma told the media that the prevailing sawmills were adequate for the country and added that setting up new sawmills would be banned. Traditional sawmills won’t be banned: Govt. Let’s examine to what extent this becomes a fair-minded decision in a move to minimise tree cutting and to conserve the environment. President Sirisena went on to say that if these measures were taken and implemented for a ten years, the forest density of Sri Lanka could be increased to an environment friendly 32% from the current not so satisfactory 28%. When considering as to why the President took such a decision, he himself pronounced that it was in a bid to protect the environment - in particular, owing to the depletion of forest cover.Īs a further measure to put an end to this destruction, the President said that he would also prohibit the import of chainsaws, tree cutting machines and maintaining of carpentry shops. The Government should implement a proper forest conservation programme to control deforesting instead of taking ad hoc decisions.After registering, a special licence and a number will also be issued for identification purposes.Environmentalists and carpenters are of the opinion that banning of mobile sawmills is commendable.Chainsaws could cause huge damage to forests.The people in the Moratuwa area- where there are plenty of sawmills and carpentry workshops- have already agitated against this move by threatening to go on hunger strikes if the President didn’t revoke his statement. It is apparent that carpentry has become one of the most popular livelihoods in Sri Lanka while also becoming one of the main traditional occupations. The Mayor of the Moratuwa Municipal Council Saman Lal Fernando and another councillor yesterday (June 11) commenced a fast unto death outside the council building in protest against the President’s proposal which would ban registering new carpentry shops in the future. These utterances have raised concerns among people across the country, especially among people engaged in carpentry. He said that his government would soon ban carpentry sheds popularly known as ‘wadu maduwas’ and thus instructed carpenters and sawmill owners to find new jobs within five years. Undertaking the theme ‘Minimising of air pollution through sustainable forest management’ on ‘World Environment Day 2019’, President Maithripala Sirisena made a quite a surprising statement at a ceremony held at BMICH.
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