Biomass-based electricity generation and its environmental appeal largely depend on the availability of land to set up energy plantations to satisfy the fuel requirement

Figure 10.1. Primary energy supply in Sri Lanka (1999).

of the power plants. The total land area of Sri Lanka amounting to over 6.5 million hectares (ha) can be categorized into Urban land, Agricultural land, Forest land, Range land, Wet land, Water bodies and Barren land (see Table 10.1) (Jayasinghe, 1998).

Agricultural land usage includes sparsely used croplands, which accounts for nearly 1.3 million hectares. The agricultural activities in Sri Lanka can be divided into lowland cultivation and upland cultivation. Lowland cultivation mainly consists of paddy cultivation whereas upland cultivation is mainly in the form of dry farming. The chena or shifting cultivation is the main form of dry farming, covering an estimated area of 1 million hectares. The nature of this type of cultivation is such that the utilization of land is cyclic and, therefore, the total area occupied by these activities is underutilized at any given time. Though the extent of land under­utilization has not yet been properly evaluated, several socioeconomic studies have revealed that the livelihood of the rural farming community occupying these lands is mainly dependent on the agricultural activity (Ariyadasa, 1996).

The maximum area available for energy plantations is what has been identified as sparsely used cropland and scrubland, amounting to a total of approximately 1.7 million hectares in all districts. It is important to note that some of the areas under scrubland and sparsely used cropland have very steep terrain for properly

Figure 10.2. Variation of addition to the population and cumulative land alienation by the State,

1946-1996.

managed energy plantations due to many potential adverse environmental impacts such as soil erosion associated with felling and transport of trees in such areas.

Land alienation

With the increase in the country’s population and the improvement in the standard of living as a result of economic development, new claims for residential land and land for other economic activities is inevitable. The total area covered by homesteads has increased by 0.8 million ha between 1939 and 1998 mainly as a result of village expansion and resettlement schemes and encroachments into state land (see also Figure 10.2) (Government of Sri Lanka, Land Commissioners Department, 1946-1996). Such increased usage of land for homesteads is expected to proceed.

This shows that there has been a strong correlation between the population growth and land alienation by the state. It can be seen that for each person added to the population, approximately 0.07 ha of land area is to be set aside. The popula­tion in the country is expected to stabilize at 25 million by year 2025 with around

6.5 million persons added from 1998. This results in an additional land requirement of around 450 000 ha over the next 25 years.