The ASG and local partners convinced the government of Sri Lanka to designate all 1,000 hectares of the Morningside Cloud Forest as a Forest Reserve for Biodiversity Conservation, which ensures its protection in perpetuity.

The ASG and local partners are developing and implementing a management plan to enable reserve staff to effectively protect threatened species within Morningside.

Concerned about the local economy for people in the region around Morningside, CI staff and IUCN are developing and implementing a component of the management plan that targets the sustainable harvest of cardamom within portions of the Morningside Cloud Forest. Cardamom plants, which do not tolerate direct sunlight, are currently grown in the understory of the forest, where the cloud forest trees provide necessary shade. However, the cardamom is being grown in a way that is not only incompatible with maintaining a tree canopy, but is also potentially harming threatened frog species in other ways. Because both cardamom plants and threatened species benefit from a healthy cloud forest habitat, there is great potential for developing cardamom farming in a way that is compatible with biodiversity conservation. The management plan will focus on how to cultivate cardamom efficiently, providing revenue to the local community without negatively impacting cloud forest trees and the threatened species that inhabit the forest.

The ASG are working with IUCN Sri Lanka to incorporate the Morningside Cloud Forest Reserve within the Sinharaja World Heritage Site, which will help ensure the long-term allocation of funds to protect and manage the species unique to Morningside.

In March 2008, ASG staff led an expedition to survey the biodiversity and determine the current status of the forest. CI obtained photos and video footage of almost all of the threatened frogs and reptiles endemic to the site, including the first photos ever of what is almost certainly a new species of shrub frog (Philautus). This new species of frog will qualify as a Critically Endangered species due to its restricted range. Without the work of CI and our partners, this species could have been lost before it was found.(See below for photos of a few of the Globally Threatened species endemic to Morningside.)

With the collaborative success of establishing the Morningside Cloud Forest Reserve, the government of Sri Lanka is now considering developing a Cloud Forest Reserve Network. CI and partners will continue to work with the Sri Lankan government to bolster this interest and ensure that the species and sites of the highest conservation priority remain the focus of the government’s attention.

Sri Lanka’s fauna is represented by many globally unique and threatened species, including dozens of amphibians endemic to the island. Amphibian diversity and endemism are especially high within the few remaining Sri Lankan cloud forests. Alarmingly, less than 8 percent of Sri Lanka’s original cloud forests

remain intact, and all continue to be threatened by expanding cultivation of tea, harvest of trees for fuel wood, and other threats.

Nineteen species of frogs endemic to Sri Lanka have gone extinct due to continuing habitat loss. No other country in the world has more documented amphibian extinctions. Therefore, it is an urgent priority to protect the remaining forests in Sri Lanka to prevent further losses of species.

The ASG identified a 1,000-hectare cloud forest called Morningside as a top priority because a total of 11 Globally Threatened amphibians, three endemic lizards, and three species of endemic

freshwater crabs are endemic to this threatened forest. The Morningside Cloud Forest, where CI has now been working for the past five years, is located in southeast Sri Lanka just east of the Sinharaja World Heritage Site. Morningside was recently identified as one of the top five highest conservation priorities worldwide based on an analysis by the Alliance for Zero Extinction (www.zeroextinction.org).

Support from the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation

and Meyer and Semple Foundation enabled CI staff to lead the development of a cooperative project among CI, the Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka, IUCN Sri Lanka, and the Forest Department of Sri Lanka to protect the forest. As of March 2008, the Morningside Cloud Forest was legally protected.