Corporate Social Responsibility

As a Company involved in Plantations, we have continuously encountered situations on normal land and forestry areas. Conservation of forestry areas as declared by the Central Environment Authority and the Government are clearly demarcated at the respective locations to ensure circumvention of encroachment. Areas in close proximity (60 metres) to waterways as catchment areas are included in conservation areas. Our approach to environmental preservation is not a one-time activity, but an ongoing journey towards maintaining a greener environment around us. Under this ongoing programme, we promote the habit of planting trees especially in our estates. Plants help to reduce temperature as a result of absorbing excess carbon dioxide. Having a green surrounding neutralises the effects of carbon dioxide emissions of our business activities. We have initiated pilot projects with fruits including pears, avocado, orange and mandarin etc, which will make the landscapes richer with diverse crops. The latest addition to this crop list is agar wood. Further, Maskeliya Plantations PLC has secured its biomass energy with giant bamboo, which will provide a steady supply of firewood for the processing centres. We are paving the way for cleaner environment and are also on the path to become carbon neutral or even to achieve carbon credits.

Our estates spread over the wet zone covering Kegalle, Kalutara, Matara, Galle, Kurunagala, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla districts experience over 2500 mm of rain. Most of our Rubber estates in Kegalle, Kalutara and Galle districts are spread between the central highlands and western southern planes varying in elevations from 500 feet above sea level to 6,000 feet. The three plantation companies are situated in the wet zone, intermediate zone and are subdivided into low country, mid country and upcountry plantations. Most of the estates are close to natural forests or reservation lands for forestry where many endangered species of butterflies, birds and animals are provided protection.

Over a dozen different mini ecosystem types have been identified in Maskeliya, Udapussellawa, Haputhale, Nuwara Eliya and Nawalapitiya regions during a survey done on biodiversity. They range from pristine virgin forests and grasslands, to manmade ecosystems such as hydropower reservoirs, plantations and disturbed scrublands etc. Tea cover is the dominant vegetation type which conceals majority of the cultivable land area in Maskeliya. Our Group and the estate community take pride in the natural environment and we are committed to protect nature that we have been blessed with.

The manmade lakes of Maussakelle and Castlereigh hydropower schemes are cardinal aquatic ecosystems which regulate and transform the multi-purpose ecosystem services provided by nature, largely at national level including hydropower generation. Some of the other services are flood control, storage and gradual release of water catering to the requirements of people living downstream, including domestic water supply for Colombo and the suburbs. The local services offer scenery, inland fisheries and leisure, together with providing landing platforms for sea planes. Timber plantations and fuel wood plantations found in diversified marginal tea lands, due to soil degradation, also occupy a considerably large land extent. Scrublands are heavily infested with invasive exotic plant species, mostly introduced to the region. It is observed that most of the invasive plant species here are of Central American origin. Coster’s curse (Clidemia hirta) or “Kata Kalu Bovitiya” in local terms, is the most aggressive tea weed in Sri Lanka .“Gal Goraka” (Clusia rosea), “Kurunjan Pullu” (Austroeupatorium inulifolium) and “Maalu Othana Kola” (Micornia calvesens) are a few other examples to this effect.

Home gardens of the resident plantation worker community and commercial vegetable plots too collectively occupy an important part of estate land. The rest of the extent is shared by riverine forests seen along water causeways, rocky outcrops, marshy lands (Wet Patna) and isolated secondary forest patches scattered throughout the landscape. The Westward section of the region borders the Peak Wilderness Nature Reserve (PWNR), one of the most diverse primary forests in Sri Lanka and home to a vast number of endemic biological species. This pristine virgin forest is the core reservoir home for almost all the wildlife species found in the Maskeliya area. Hence, many of these species have crossed over and wandered into tea estate land, giving visitors the opportunity of admiring them at the estates, without entering into the nature reserve.

Hydro power plants at Talawakelle and Brunswick estates generate electricity which helps to supply for domestic use and also to contribute to the national grid.

As a Group which holds Plantation Companies, we are always concerned about our environment, particularly soil. To safeguard against land and soil erosion, we continuously emphasis on improved land management structures and methods such as terracing, mulching, weeding, growing Manaa (grass which prevents soil erosion) and other plants to prevent soil erosion. Using plants for erosion control is an excellent biological method that we use to safeguard the landscape and the shape of the land. In our tea plantations, especially in the Upcountry and Uva range plantations we adopt this method to safeguard the soil. In every bank or end of planting areas with a higher slope, we take these methods to prevent soil erosion. This has enabled us to minimise the conditions that promote soil erosion such as rain, wind, physical disturbance. It is a relatively easy way to conserve top soils and prevent open areas from wearing away.

Other methods include coir netting, mulching, terracing and drains. However, the ground cover that we maintain together with overhead canopies of our shade trees and permanent crops, protects the soil without artificial methodologies. We have also started a pilot project at Mocha Estate, Maskeliya, in order to convert weed biomass removed from the fields through manual weeding, into enriched compost to be put back to the tea fields. The aim is to enrich the soil within the generated resources and improve nutrient retention ability and moisture holding capacity. By improving the soil this way, the input use efficiency of the soil can be enhanced while controlling the usage of costly fertilizer input, thereby saving funds.

All operations including felling, clearing, extraction and transportation of timber is undertaken in conformity to the environmental standards stipulated under the National Environmental Act. All precautionary measures are planned out to minimize soil erosion and runoff fluctuation of the ground water table. It is also mandatory on the part of the company to replant the harvested extents almost immediately during the succeeding monsoon, in addition to the establishment of conservation forest extents in vulnerable areas. Clear felling of trees in extents exceeding 2 hectares, felling of wind belts or any form of felling of trees in catchment areas or in lands with high gradients are totally avoided.

As a socially responsible Group we take every possible action with the view of preserving the water sources for future generations. We have undertaken a number of initiatives to not only to preserve water but more importantly to develop and improve our water resources through improved water retention techniques and harvesting of rainwater. These necessary step were taken not only for the concern of the business, but more importantly for serving the needs of our people.

Most of our Retail outlets have Water Treatment Plants and we do not discharge water without treating the same. Our crops do not depend on irrigation for survival but on inherent ground moisture levels and to that extent, the retention, preservation and revitalization of ground water levels. Thus, it is paramount to regularize the flow of water in our streams, waterways and springs to prevent them from drying out during the dry weather. Our focus has been to reduce ground temperature as far as possible, improve the permeability and water retention capacity of our soils, and improve recharge structures so as to reduce or eliminate the surface flow of water directed to the rivers.

We are in the process of establishing forest-like ecosystems on marginal land extents and also along the water streams present in the tea estates. Furthermore we have started the construction of mini/micro scale cascading reservoir systems in order to improve the retention of the water we harvest. Thereby, in addition to improving water availability for the estate and for the plantation community, the above water harvesting initiatives would secure the water supply for the people living downstream, beyond our territory as well. Accordingly, we would be able to halt the decline in our water resources and prevent a major crisis in years to come, to secure and improve the performance of our cultivation.

Various steps have been taken towards water management by Namunukula, Maskeliya and Kegalle Plantations such as;

• Improve both high and low shade that not only serves to reduce ground temperatures but provides valuable raw material for mulching and reduces the velocity of heavy rainfall at the point of impact.
• Contour draining – a process that enables maximizing the harvesting of rain water amongst other agronomical benefits.
• Forking and burying of pruning material to improve soil permeability amongst other agronomical benefits.

All water catchment areas are carefully identified and kept undisturbed to continue serving as water bodies for the resident and non-resident population, in and around our plantations. Maintaining high standards of agricultural practices, our plantations do not permit surface running of water, which instead has to be trapped through the draining system to promote absorption of water.

In the Rubber production process, the factories have welldesigned effluent treatment plants, and water used in the production process is treated and adequately purified to reduce the effluent at an acceptable level as per the environment policy.

Our field of Water Resources Management will continue to adapt to current and future issues. It is likely that ongoing climate change will lead to situations that have not been encountered before. As a result, to face the rise of uncertainties in the environment, new tactics are being followed and implemented in order to avoid setbacks in the future.