Abstract:
Forests are essential to life on earth. The forest ecosystem provides great
services for market value and human quality of life. Sri Lanka's second
national forest, Yala National Park, is a forest ecosystem that is home to many
ecological services. However, there is little public awareness of these services,
which in turn have adverse human activities in the forest, and at present, the
forest ecosystem is facing many threats. The research aims at protecting the
ecosystem by educating the community on the services provided by the forest
to the animal and plant community. A sample of 10 local tourists, 10 foreign
tourists and 15 people from Gonangara and Konkatiya Grama Niladhari
Division located in Yala national park were selected as the primary data under
the simple random sampling method. Primary data were collected through
direct and indirect observations and structured questionnaire and interview
system under observation. Research papers, magazines, and data from the
Wildlife Office were collected under secondary data. Data analyse was
performed using the MS Excel, ArcGIS software and tables, maps and graphs
were used to present the data. According to the opinion of the community and
tourists, the Yala national park comprises manufacturing services, regulatory
services such as Climate control, carbon regulation and education, recreation
services which are essential services to mankind. Transforming forest service
awareness into the community, enforcing new laws, creating sustainable
tourism can reduce forest impacts and provide sustainable forest services.
