Integrating urban agriculture and forestry into climate change action plans: Lessons from Sri Lanka

This briefing describes how the Western Province of Sri Lanka is integrating urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry into its climate change adaptation strategies to mitigate flood risks, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve food security.

• The Western Province is the first provincial government in Sri Lanka to incorporate urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry into its climate change adaptation action strategy. This approach focuses on rehabilitating productive green spaces to manage storm water, reduce flood risks, and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by reducing dependency on food imports and the associated energy for transport and storage.
• Pilot projects in the Kesbewa Urban Council focused on two models: the productive rehabilitation of abandoned paddy lands and the intensification of home gardening combined with rainwater harvesting and organic waste composting. In Kesbewa, 32% of paddy lands were abandoned by 2011 due to low profitability compared to the North of the country and saltwater ingress.
• Impact monitoring by the University of Moratuwa and the University of Colombo indicates that local vegetable production in Kesbewa can reduce GHG emissions by 75 tons per year compared to importing the same amount of vegetables. Additionally, preserving and managing paddy lands is estimated to lower the incidence and impact of flooding.
• The project identified necessary policy interventions at three levels: local (integrating urban agriculture into development plans and budgets), provincial (creating a provincial climate change adaptation action plan covering food security, biodiversity, health, water, and human settlements), and national (revising the Paddy Act to support mixed cultivation of rice and vegetables).
• The briefing advocates for a 'green mosaic' urban design concept, where dense urban areas are intertwined with protected green productive spaces. This structure uses (peri-)urban agriculture areas as buffer zones against climate effects like flooding and reduces GHG emissions through shorter farm-to-table transportation.
• Successful implementation was facilitated by linking project activities with monitoring and policy-making, and by securing co-funding from local partners and international organisations such as UN-Habitat, RUAF/IWMI, and CDKN. Local funding was sourced from the Department of Agrarian Services and the Divina Naguma home garden programme.

APA

Dubbeling, M. (2014). Integrating urban agriculture and forestry into climate change action plans: Lessons from Sri Lanka. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/SriLanka_Inside_Story_final_web-res.pdf

Chicago

Dubbeling, Marielle. Integrating urban agriculture and forestry into climate change action plans: Lessons from Sri Lanka. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2014. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/SriLanka_Inside_Story_final_web-res.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dubbeling |first1=Marielle |title=Integrating urban agriculture and forestry into climate change action plans: Lessons from Sri Lanka |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=May 2014 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/SriLanka_Inside_Story_final_web-res.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dubbeling2014integrating, author = {Dubbeling, Marielle}, title = {{Integrating urban agriculture and forestry into climate change action plans: Lessons from Sri Lanka}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2014}, month = may, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/SriLanka_Inside_Story_final_web-res.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }