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Project Location

The project location is Udakiruwa forest (Lat: 7.050902 and Lon: 81.233480), in Lunugala Divisional Secretariat Division, Badulla District, Sri Lanka within the Eastern intermediate zone. The forest is 2240 ha in extent and is mainly confined to a narrow valley bottom flanked by hills (Ekanayake and Fernando, 2016). The mean annual temperature is in the range of 22.5 – 25 oC and the annual rainfall varies from 2000-2500 mm (Survey Department, 1988). The forest is dominated with species of the family Dipterocarpaceae. The land is managed by the Department of Forest Conservation of Sri Lanka and the Department has already proposed to declare this forest fragment as a Forest Reserve. Planting small scale cash crops such as tea, rubber and cocoa, rice, swidden farming and collecting non-timber forest products are among the main sources of livelihood of the Udakiruwa community.