Homegardens: Looking back at tradition for a greener future in Sri Lanka (LONG VERSION)

Homegardens in Sri Lanka are among the oldest land use activity, next to shifting cultivation. The construction of a house and its surroundings, including the homegarden, termed as “vasthu”, date back to a period of 6,000 years, and became more common after the introduction of Buddhism to the country in 247 B.C.

Homegardens are defined as a sustainable land use system that combines agroforestry with livestock to yield a wide range of goods including fruits, vegetables, spices, medicine, timber, fodder and livestock products. In addition to providing food security and income generation opportunities, they also bring environmental benefits like regulating soil erosion, seed dispersal, flood control, and carbon sequestration.

Recently, they have been targeted as a specific policy to curb climate change under Sri Lanka's National REDD+ Investment Framework and Action Plan, a five-year strategy (2018-2022) that sets out a clear vision for REDD+ in Sri Lanka and will serve as the key guiding document for the government that will lead its implementation through its Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment.

The Action Plan, which was developed during a four-year process that assessed the feasibility and role of REDD+ in Sri Lanka’s forest management and land use systems, includes key targets like increasing the national forest cover to 32% and achieving a 36% reduction in annual forest loss (currently 8,000 hectares). It also identifies 13 Policies and Measures (PAMS) within three key policy areas (Forest, Wildlife and Watershed; Land use planning; Other Forested lands) to achieve this vision.

Homegardens are specifically mentioned in PAM 10 (Under the Policy Area of Land Use Planning): “Improve the tree cover of non-forested lands (home gardens, urban centres, public lands and settlements)”. The REDD+ target is to improve their management to increase their service and conditions to result in a greener, more sustainable environment in Sri Lanka.