Abstract:
This research was conducted based on a questionnaire survey related to Biodiversity
and Conservation to reveal the status of awareness of the terms “Biodiversity and
Biodiversity Conservation” among the Sabaragamuwa University community and to
acquaint them with biodiversity conservation. One hundred and twenty individuals
including males and females above 20 years of age were randomly selected from the
Sabaragamuwa University premises to conduct this questionnaire. They were categorized
as academic staff, non-academic staff, and students. To begin the questionnaire survey,
we first asked what biodiversity is and what biodiversity includes. Furthermore, we asked
about the consumption of bushmeat by humans, knowledge of people on environmental
protection agencies in Sri Lanka, the knowledge about the endangered animal species in
Sri Lanka, knowledge of forest products, climatic change and threats to wildlife in Sri
Lanka, and some suggestions were gained from the individuals to protect Biodiversity in
Sri Lanka. The data obtained from this questionnaire were recorded and the results were
analyzed. According to the results, 99% of the them know about the term “Biodiversity”
but most people do not have a proper knowledge about what biodiversity is. Most
of them were well aware of the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Central
Environmental Authority as Environmental protection agencies. Sinharaja forest was
observed as the most visited protected area. Elephants and Leopards are known by
respondents as endangered animal species in Sri Lanka. All respondents (100%) believe
that most of the threats to biodiversity occur due to human activities and 90% of them
consume bushmeat knowingly contributing to such threats to biodiversity
