The Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at reducing harm to wildlife around airports while keeping Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport operating safely.
The agreement was signed on Monday morning at Mattala by the Director General of Wildlife and the Acting Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, Newswire reported.
Under the MoU, the two agencies will work together to reduce wildlife-related incidents near the airport, safeguard biodiversity in the surrounding ecosystem, strengthen sustainable practices in airport management, and improve coordination between aviation regulators and wildlife experts.
Mattala, located near the boundary of Bundala and other protected areas in the southern dry zone, has long faced wildlife-strike risks from elephants, peacocks and other birds drawn to the surrounding scrubland. The facility is currently being marketed to international operators after the Cabinet approved a global Expression of Interest for the airport earlier this month, with environmental management among the criteria likely to be assessed.
The wildlife MoU is the first formal inter-agency framework on the issue and provides Mattala’s eventual operator with an established environmental-management protocol to inherit.
