An oversized scale personal appropriation of land, resources, and water legitimized with the protection of the setting or supported through mechanisms associated with global climate change mitigation. Almost like the thought of land grabbing it's a political term, used each by activists and scholars to criticize massive scale land appropriation processes. green grabbing or land grabbing is the privatization or appropriation of land for functions of advancing a “green” economy whereas excluding native, endemic individuals from natural resources.
Published in Chapter:
Integrated Urban Freshwater Landscape at Risk: Ecology, Governance, and Sustainability of Urban Wetlands in Colombo, Sri Lanka
M. D. K. L. Gunathilaka (University of Colombo, Sri Lanka & Yunnan University, China) and W. T. S. Harshana (Urban Development Authority, Sri Lanka)
Copyright: © 2023
|Pages: 32
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-9289-2.ch003
Abstract
Freshwater wetlands are more threatened than any other ecosystem in the world. The current trend of freshwater wetland crisis arises a question ‘whether it is conversion or conservation of wetlands' which is absolutely a dilemma. Therefore, this study aims critical evaluation at wetland governance and sustainability of urban wetlands in Colombo. The results reveal that the Colombo wetlands have lost their territory from a moderate to a severe degree. The wetland loss is higher in Kaduwela, Kolonnawa, and Kesbewa areas. Recently the causes of Colombo wetland loss has moved with a new frame. Land grabbing and green grabbing are the cycles that transforming the geostrategically important urban wetlands into hybrid ecosystems. Due to this, the frequency of flash flood events and inundation time has increased than ever. It is important to ensure urban freshwater wetland sustainability and surveillance following sustainable development goals and it is time to have freshwater ethics.