The National Policy on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in Sri Lanka, Strategies and Action Plan.

The National Policy on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in Sri Lanka, Strategies and Action Plan (2016) is a document organized in different sections. The first section contains The National Invasive Alien Species (IAS) Policy of Sri Lanka, and its mission is establishing a comprehensive, coordinated, and efficient system (legal framework and institutional coordination mechanism) to prevents, detects, responds to, and manage the risks of IAS to the economy, aquatic, marine and terrestrial ecosystems including agricultural and other man made landscapes and native biodiversity, and society. The Policy and the Policy Statements are organized under four equally essential thrust areas that forms the foundation for the management of IAS, with addition of a general/cross-cutting section; 1) Prevention of intentional and unintentional introductions of IAS 2) Early Detection and Rapid response to the new invaders (pre-entry/post-entry) 3) Containment, Control and Eradication of established and spreading invaders 4) Restoring of Ecosystems degraded due to impacts of IAS.
The second section contains the Strategies and Action Plan to Implement the National Policy on Invasive Alien Species organized under the trust areas with the additional general/cross cutting section. Strategies include: Public Awareness and sensitization programs on entry pathways, invasiveness and environmental impacts on IAS are promoted to produce a responsible and vigilant citizen; Establishment of the National Focal Point on IAS at the Biodiversity Secretariat of the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment that facilitates a process of monitoring IAS entry and control at national level; An organized risk assessment process and an effective regulatory mechanism will be established preventing entry and spread of IAS; Human resources of stakeholder organizations are developed with required training/ capacity building, etc.