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According to the U.N. FAO, 28.8% of Sri Lanka was forested in 2010 (about 1,86 million hectares). In 1995, it was 1.94 million hectares or 32.2% [11] of the land area that was classified as dense forests while the balance 0.47 million hectares or 7% the land area classified as open forests.
9.0% [5] of Sri Lanka's forests are classified as primary forest (the most biodiverse form of forest and the biggest carbon sinks on Earth). Sri Lanka's forests contain 61 million metric tons of carbon in living forest biomass (in 2010 [5]). Between 1990 and 2005 alone, Sri Lanka lost 17.7% of its forest cover. [2]
Location of Sri Lanka. Environmental issues in Sri Lanka include large-scale logging of forests and degradation of mangroves, coral reefs and soil. Air pollution and water pollution are challenges for Sri Lanka since both cause negative health impacts. Overfishing and insufficient waste management, especially in rural areas, leads to ...
The ecoregion covers an area of 48,400 square kilometers (18,700 sq mi), about 75%, of the island of Sri Lanka, with the exception of the islands' southwestern corner and Central Highlands, home to the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests and Sri Lanka montane rain forests ecoregions, respectively, and the northern Jaffna Peninsula, which is part of the Deccan thorn scrub forests ecoregion.
Plant diversity and endemism in Sri Lanka are quite high. Of 3,210 flowering plants belonging to 1,052 genera, 916 species and 18 genera are endemic. [3] All but one of Sri Lanka's more than 55 dipterocarp (Sinhalese "Hora") are found nowhere else in the world. Sri Lanka's amphibian diversity is only becoming known now.
It is also the primary threat to the survival of Sri Lanka's biodiversity. [2] Sri Lanka has 751 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles of which 21.7% are endemic, and over 3314 species of vascular plants, of which 26.9% are endemic. [4]
Sri Lanka is known to be home to 794 species of Hemipterans. Detailed work of Sri Lankan hemipterans are recorded in the book Catalogue of Hemiptera of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka comprises 74 species in 46 genera and 6 families of aphids within the order Hemiptera. 2 endemic aphid species are found on Sri Lanka
NASA satellite view of Sri Lanka revealing sparser areas of forest to the north and east of the island Deforestation is one of the most serious environmental issues in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's current forest cover as of 2017 was 29.7%. [37] In the 1920s, the island had a 49 percent forest cover but by 2005 this had fallen by approximately 26 percent.