Sri Lanka declares seven more national parks and wildlife sanctuaries

Jan 04, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government, giving priority to protect natural forests, wetlands and wildlife and to minimize the destruction of animal shelters risked by various illegal activities, has declared six forest areas in the island as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

The cabinet of ministers at its meeting held Tuesday has approved the proposal tabled by the Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife Gamini Jayawickrama Perera to declare the national parks.

Accordingly, the following measures were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers:

• Declare the forest area belongs to Kala Wewa and Balalu Wewa in Kahalla - Pallekele Sanctuary in Anuradhapura and Kurunegala Districts as 'Kala Wewa National Park' and declare its rest forest area in Kurunegala District as 'Kahalla - Pallekele National Park'.
• Declare 'Kayankarni Marine Natural Reservation' covering the marine area in Pasikuda in Trincomalee District.
• Declare the forest area around the Kotuattawala Wewa in Nikaweratiya Divisional Secretary's Division in Kurunegala District as the 'Kotuattawala Sanctuary'.
• Declare Akurala wetland in Hikkaduwa Divisional Secretary's Division in Galle District as 'Akurala Wildlife Sanctuary'.
• Declare Kodigahakanda forest in Horana Divisional Secretary's Division in Kaluthara District as 'Kodigahakanda Wildlife Sanctuary'.
• Declare the marine area including the coral reefs which the Kuda Ravana and Maha Ravana lighthouses are located as 'Kuda Ravana Maha Ravana Marine Sanctuary'.
• Amendment of borders of Madu Ganga Sanctuary in Balapitiya Divisional Secretary's Division in Galle District.

Hydroponic Farm Grows 350 Varieties Of Vegetables With 90 Minerals To Grow The Best Tasting Food…

John from Growing Your Greens goes on a field trip to Swank Specialty Produce that grows over 350 varieties of vegetables and uses 90 minerals to grow the best tasting food. In this episode, John will visit a farm in South Florida growing both Hyrdoponic Shade House Grown and Organic Full Sun Production.

You will get a full tour of the farm including many of the crops they are currently growing, how they are growing them. You will learn how important it is to grow diversity in your garden and grow specific varieties of crops for success instead of failure. You will also discover the special trace minerals they use to grow the best tasting food…

If you like this idea, be sure to share it with your friends and inspire someone you know. Anything becomes possible with just a little inspiration…

This World-First Farm Grows Vegetables In The Desert With Nothing But Sun & Seawater…

Sundrop Farms in the South Australian desert manages to grow 17,000 tonnes of tomatoes every year using nothing but sunlight and seawater.

The indoor farm is the first of its kind, and the result of six years of research by an international team of scientists who wanted to find a way to produce crops without needing fresh water, soil, or unnecessary energy from the grid – something we’ll need to get used to when these resources become more scarce.

“A conventional greenhouse uses groundwater for irrigation, gas for heating, and electricity for cooling,” the team says on their site.

“A Sundrop greenhouse turns seawater and sunlight into energy and water. We then use sustainably sourced carbon dioxide and nutrients to maximise the growth of our crops.”

The general concept of the farm – which opened its 20-hectare commercial site in Port Augusta back in 2014 – is basically to reduce the amount of energy and fresh water needed to make profitable produce by using seawater from the Spencer Gulf, which lies 2 kilometres (1.24 miles) away.

After the seawater arrives at the farm, it is desalinated at an on-site, solar-powered plant that turns it into fresh, plant-ready water by ‘scrubbing’ the salt out of it, reports Alive Klein at New Scientist.

The roots of the vegetables are grown in coconut husks, and to keep the plants cool enough in the harsh summer heat of up to 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit), the team uses seawater-soaked pieces of cardboard at their base. The heat from the Sun is enough for the plants to survive during the winter months.

The fact that the plants are grown indoors also negates the need for pesticides, because closely monitored conditions allow for a controlled, pest-free growing environment.

That’s all well and good, but the real trick the team has come up with is a way to power this gigantic facility using only solar energy.

Instead of lining everything with solar panels, they’ve created a field of 23,000 mirrors that focus the Sun’s rays onto a fixed tower, where it powers a generator to create electricity.

Despite the system working efficiently, so far, the farm is still connected to the power grid as a safety net, just in case something goes wrong, especially during the winter.

“We use the Sun’s energy to produce freshwater for irrigation. And we turn it into electricity to power our greenhouse to heat and cool our crops,” the team says. “Our ventilation also uses seawater to clean and sterilise the air, so it keeps bugs under control without the need for pesticides.”

Although it’s still early days, experts think the Sundrop Farm system could be a solution to the woes farmers face across the world as fresh water becomes more scarce, land becomes more arid, and energy costs go up.

“These closed production systems are very clever,” researcher Robert Park from the University of New England in Australia, who isn’t involved in the project, told New Scientist.

“I believe that systems using renewable energy sources will become better and better and increase in the future, contributing even more of some of our foods.”

There are a few downsides though. Firstly, there’s no word as yet on whether or not this sunlight-collecting system has had any negative impact on other animals in the desert. Similar mirror-based solar facilities in the US have been known to incinerate upwards of 6,000 birds per year as they fly in front of the highly concentrated sunbeams to hunt insects.

The farm also has a pretty big upfront price tag. Sundrop Farm’s commercial facility, which houses about 180,000 tomato plants, cost roughly US$ 200 million to build. But the team says that because they can predict their costs more accurately than traditional farms, that hefty sum will soon pay off.

Only time will tell if systems like Sundrop Farm’s will become the future of agriculture, but researchers around the world will be watching them closely. Check out the video below to see inside the farm (via ScienceAlert)…

If you like this idea, be sure to share it with your friends and inspire someone you know. Anything becomes possible with just a little inspiration…

How To Grow A Forest In Your Backyard…

Forests don’t have to be far-flung nature reserves, isolated from human life. Instead, we can grow them right where we are – even in cities. Eco-entrepreneur and TED Fellow Shubhendu Sharma grows ultra-dense, biodiverse mini-forests of native species in urban areas by engineering soil, microbes and biomass to kickstart natural growth processes.

As Shubhendu says “…Most of the world we live in today was forest. This was before human intervention. Then we built up our cities on those forests, like São Paulo, forgetting that we belong to nature as well, as much as 8.4 million other species on the planet. Our habitat stopped being our natural habitat. But not anymore for some of us. A few others and I today make these forests professionally — anywhere and everywhere.”

Follow along as he describes how to grow a 100-year-old forest in just 10 years, and learn how you can get in on this tiny jungle party in your own backyard…

If you like this idea, be sure to share it with your friends and inspire someone you know. Anything becomes possible with just a little inspiration…