Given the high diversity and endemism among the fauna and flora communities in Sri Lanka, the implementation of conservation actions is a pressing need. Effective conservation planning needs the integration of four salient actions: (1) landscape-scale management of habitats, species, and ecosystem processes; (2) strengthening existing national policies on environmental management and biodiversity conservation; (3) continuous monitoring of habitat and population status, and promotion of ecology and conservation-driven research; and (4) raising public awareness of wildlife conservation and natural resource management. The fact that Sri Lanka’s wet zone and surrounding areas are an MBR signifies the global scale importance of our study region and the urgent need for conservation. The local inhabitants in wet zone areas are constantly interacting with the wildlife and are highly dependent on many forest products and other natural resources. Therefore, conservation measures must be based on participatory management programs such as community forest management, local forest stewardship development, easement-like conservation-driven incentives, and shared governance through stakeholder participation.

 

With the high diversity of birds, along with the high abundance of charismatic megafauna such as elephants, community-based ecotourism may have some promising results not only as a source of local income but also as a means of minimizing overutilization of natural resources. These improvements should target the conservation of biological diversity. Furthermore, the introduction of economically and environmentally sustainable agroforestry practices, forest gardening, subsistence farming, and delineation of biodiversity integrated, resilient agricultural landscapes embedded with the wet zone forest, other regional state protected areas, and relatively unaltered private lands may help mitigate some of the anthropogenic disturbances that are detrimental to faunal groups and their habitats in Sri Lanka.