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from Wildlife Conservation and Photographic perspectives.
This is the 11th panel of discussion program is hosted by America Sri Lankan Photographic Art Society in Los Angeles California, USA to promote and showcase the incredibly rich biodiversity of the pearl of Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka, to the world.
www.usacaaspas.com
Date:Saturday ,22nd September 2020
Time: 7.30am to 8.30am Local Time in Los Angeles
8pm to 9pm Local Time in Sri Lanka
Panellists:
ENOKA KUDAVIDANAGE
Head of Department & Senior Lecturer Ecology and Conservation Biology at the Department of Natural Resources Sabaragamuwa University Sri Lanka Dr Enoka Kudavidanage graduated from the Department of Zoology, University of Colombo with a BSc honours degree in Zoology and MSc in Environmental Sciences. Enoka’s earliest professional experience is as a freelance environmental journalist, where she interacted with conservation professionals, scientists, grassroots level activists and local communities acquiring a broader outlook to the biodiversity conservation goals. She joined Sabaragamuwa University in 2001 as a junior lecturer in Biodiversity. The university at that time located in a rural area, allowed her to work, with communities severely affected by poverty, natural resource limitations, socio-economic issues and human animal conflicts, and with decision makers struggling to conserve protected areas with the limited available resources amidst the pressure from the community. She completed her PhD in Conservation Biology at the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore during 2006-2011 as a NUS scholar, under the supervision of Prof. Edward Webb and (late) Prof. Navjot Sodhi. While at NUS, she worked as a teaching assistant and was also active as a RMBR volunteer (Toddy cat). Her PhD research completed in 2011 was conducted in the lowland wet zone of Sri Lanka on the impact of land use change on the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Through the same research she revised and validated dung beetle fauna of Sri Lanka as a suitable indicator taxon to monitor land use change in Sri Lanka. Currently, she is the Head of the Department & Senior lecturer in Ecology and Conservation Biology at the Department of Natural Resources, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka where she contributes to producing professionals in natural resource management. She works with various governmental and non-governmental organizations research institutes, scientific bodies and NGOs to bridge the gap between the scientists, decision makers and the community. She has several publications in her chosen area of studies. She is a task force member of the Biodiversity unit, National REDD + program of Sri Lanka and the University representative of the academic task force for the Minister of Sustainable development and Wildlife. While focusing on strengthening the existing protected area management, she is much interested in conservation beyond protected areas, where it is necessary to strike a balance between sustainable use of land by the community and maintaining healthy ecosystem processes. Her most recent research includes a study on wildlife crimes, a population assessment and conservation of montane leopards and a status assessment of the National park system.She is also the Founder of Topical Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) and Secretary of the Asia Pacific Chapter of the Association for Topical Biology & Conservation (ATBC)