Fish and Wildlife Management University of Peradeniya

Overview

Why study Fish and Wildlife Management MSc programme at University of Peradeniya

Wildlife always played a significant role in the life of the Sri Lankan, the elephant being the flagship species of Sri Lanka. Harvesting wildlife from land and seas is one of the earliest forms of land use known to man, but wildlife resources have never been exploited in any significant manner in Sri Lanka, although poaching for meat and other animal products was always endemic. On the other hand, the forest resources are over-exploited. The forest cover in Sri Lanka was estimated to be 84% of the total land area in1881 and 70% in 1900 and only about 20% at present. With the disappearance of the forest, the wildlife will dwindle. Wildlife is a resource comparable with forests, and so could be sustainably utilized to generate financial benefits to the people who co-exist with it. If a population that is not small or declining can be exploited in such a way as to take from it a sustained yield, and if this yield can benefit mankind, then such sustained yield harvesting need not conflict with the goals of conservation biology. Game management is the art of making land produce better sustainable yields.