BIODIVERSITY IN SRI LANKA

2 Ecological values (services and goods) of Biodiversity • Ecosystem services (non-tangible services): provision of fresh water, soil and water conservation, regulation of dry weather flow, habouring pollinators, biocontrol agents etc. of value to man, amelioration of environment, aesthetic (recreational) and educational value. • Provision of bio-resources (tangible services): food, fuel, fiber, wood and cane construction material, medicines, ornamental species of commercial value.


Introduction to biological diversity in Sri Lanka
• Biogeography in space and time (breakup of Gondwana to rise of the Himalayas).• Wallace's Ceylonese Biogeographic region.
• Patterns of BD distribution in the island: natural ecosystems, floristic zones and bioregions of Sri Lanka.

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Ecological values (services and goods) of Biodiversity • Ecosystem services (non-tangible services): provision of fresh water, soil and water conservation, regulation of dry weather flow, habouring pollinators, biocontrol agents etc. of value to man, amelioration of environment, aesthetic (recreational) and educational value.• Provision of bio-resources (tangible services): food, fuel, fiber, wood and cane construction material, medicines, ornamental species of commercial value.

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Traditional religio-cultural values on biodiversity conservation.
• Environmental ethics in Asian philosophies and deep ecology.

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Human impact on biodiversity (prehistoric, colonial to current) in Sri Lanka

Field trip to Knuckles Range
Kandyan spice/home gardens, lower montane natural forests under-planted with cardamom, tea plantation, abandoned tea given way to grasslands, riverine forest patches, Pitawala pathana carpet grassland, dry semi-deciduous forest.Ecotourism effort with local participation.

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Ex-situ conservation of Biodiversity • Temple gardens, home gardens, spice gardens.
• Plant Genetic Resources Centre.
12 Sri Lanka's indigenous (traditional) rice-paddy agroecosystems vs. modern high through-put irrigated agroecosystems: management, services and human well-being • Culture and Agriculture in Sri Lanka.
• Paddy cultivation and different ecosystems.
• Traditional irrigation and paddy cultivation.
• Traditional labour exchange patterns and cultural capital formation.• Traditional pest control methods: labour intensive farming methods vs. capital extensive farming systems.

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Rehabilitation & restoration ecology • Bringing back natural forests: concepts and principles.• Reduction of carbon foot print (total amount of GHG produced due to one's activities over given period of time).• Adaptation strategies to climate change (CC) (establishing connectivity between reserves, wild life corridors, building resilience to CC, etc.).

Student presentations on Horton Plains.
Please note: The field sites given in this Course Schedule are tentative and may be subject to change.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Any academic endeavor must be based upon a foundation of honesty and integrity.Students are expected to abide by principles of academic integrity and must be willing to bear individual responsibility for their work while studying abroad.Any academic work (written or otherwise) submitted to fulfill an academic requirement must represent a student's original work.Any act of academic misconduct, such as cheating, fabrication, forgery, plagiarism, or facilitating academic dishonesty, will subject a student to disciplinary action.
IFSA takes academic integrity very seriously.Students must not accept outside assistance without permission from the instructor.Additionally, students must document all sources according to the instructions of the professor.Should your instructor suspect you of plagiarism, cheating, or other forms of academic dishonesty, you may receive a failing grade for the course and disciplinary action may result.The incident will be reported to the IFSA resident director as well as your home institution.

Oral power-point presentation on Horton Plains Each
student will submit, two topics of relevance to the course that interested you most on the Horton Plains field visit.From the two topics submitted by each of you, the instructor/s will select one and request you to prepare a 15 min.oral presentation, followed by a 05 min.discussion.The selection would be made to reduce any major overlaps among the presentations.
6Environmental economics • Market failures (why markets fail to allocate natural resources efficiently) • Reasons for market failure with emphasis on biodiversity conservation.• Total economic value (use and non-use values).