Raqib Valli

Changes in forest policy profoundly affect agrarian societies (Caron, 1995). The indigenous populations within the Sinharaja Man and the Biosphere Reserve in Sri Lanka exemplify this. In 1989 the Reserve was established, and villagers were banned from harvesting any forest products (other than tapping kitul palm) as the state sought to shift from an exploitative to a preservationist forest policy position. As homegardens are estimated to cover around 14.8% of Sri Lanka’s total land area and produce roughly 42% of the nation’s wood products (Mohri et al., 2013), understanding the drivers that shape the floristic composition of homegardens is critically important. With mounting concerns over a changing climate and a struggling Sri Lankan economy, a more nuanced understanding of the maintenance of useful plant diversity may help to better direct resources to promote rural food production and livelihood security. As such, I seek to answer the question: which variables correlate with useful plant richness of ethnotaxa promoted and maintained by farmers on homegardens in Pitakele? The variables to be examined include the cumulative size of all plots managed by a household, the relative proportions of a household under different land-use types, the comparative diversity of the homegarden itself versus the patio section and the personal characteristics of the farmers.