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74% of local endemic freshwater fish facing extinction: Experts

07 Sep 2021

  • Call for national survey and conservation action plan 
By Pamodi Waravita The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Sri Lanka’s National Freshwater Fish Expert Panel has called for urgent action to protect the habitats of freshwater fish, as a recent assessment conducted by them found that 74% of the country’s freshwater fish are facing the threat of extinction. The Panel issued four key recommendations in this regard in its “National Red List of Sri Lanka: Assessment of the Threat Status of the Freshwater Fishes of Sri Lanka 2020” report released on 3 September.  “Approximately 28% of the land area in Sri Lanka has been declared as protected areas and is managed by either the Wildlife Conservation Department or the Forest Department. However, most of the threatened, endemic and range restricted freshwater fish are found in habitats located outside the protected area network and are subject to high levels of human activity. There have been several local extinctions. Therefore, urgent action is needed to protect these habitats,” it stated. Thus, the Panel explained that a systematic islandwide survey of freshwater fish would help determine the threat status of each species, and to in turn formulate conservation plans. They would also be instrumental in identifying new species, and documenting ecological variables needed for each species. Of the 61 species endemic to Sri Lanka that were assessed by the Panel, 12 point-endemic species were listed as critically endangered, 24 range restricted species as endangered, nine as vulnerable, five as near-threatened, two as data deficient, and nine as being of least concern in terms of the threat status. Furthermore, from the 36 indigenous/native species that were assessed, only eight were listed as threatened. As per the IUCN, endemic species are those that are native to and restricted to a particular geographical region while indigenous/native species are those that are assumed be intrinsically part of the ecosystem, owing to having developed there, having arrived in the area long before a record of such matters was kept, or having arrived by natural means, unaided by human action. The Panel further recommended that population assessments be conducted, at least for the critically endangered species, and that conservation action plans be developed for threatened fish species endemic to Sri Lanka. An immediate need for raising awareness among local communities has also been recognised, as most freshwater fish species live in human-dominated landscapes. “Such a programme has been implemented successfully for the ‘Pethia bandula (Bandula barb)’ fish species and has resulted in the curtailing of the illegal collection of the said fish, and the consequent recovery of the population,” it noted. This species of fish can only be found in a 1.5 km long stream that flows through Galapitamada in the Sabaragamuwa Province, outside of the protected area network of the country. Deforestation, river diversion projects, overexploitation, the introduction of exotic species, gem mining, urbanisation, and climate change, have been identified as the main drivers affecting freshwater fish. The Red Data List for Freshwater Fish was released on 3 September. These lists are part of the ongoing compilation of the new edition of the Red Data Book, which is to be released by the end of 2022. According to the Environment Ministry’s Media Unit, the red databases of 11 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, dragonflies, ants, bees, spiders, freshwater crabs, and land snails are nearing completion.  

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