Notwithstanding the many measures taken to protect the Sinharaja, the future still holds a measure of uncertainly for this Reserve. Wilderness areas like the Sinharaja are often subject to the activities of those who week to exploit them on a commercial scale. The greatest threat, by far, to the Sinharaja is the ever-increasing demand for timber and plywood for construction and other purposes. As the logging project of the 1970's demonstrated, policy makers are often only too ready to take the easy way out and advocate the destruction of existing forests for development purposes. Further problems are posed by the demand for land by a rapidly expanding population. With the declaration of the Sinharaja as the first National Heritage Wilderness area grater legal security has been provide for its protection. Its excision is permitted only with the concurrence of the President and the Parliament of Sir Lanka. Meanwhile its recent declaration as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO brings it further international recognition.

                  For more than two thousand years, the Sri Lankan villager has taken what be needs from the forests around him. Although, most Sri Lankans today are aware that the Forests of the island have been reduced to an almost meagre level, need and poverty drive them to exploit this ever-shrinking source. The people must be provided for, and the most humane way of doing this would be to provide them with exploitable areas.

                          It therefore becomes imperative that buffer zones be created and planted with those species used most frequently by the villagers of fuelwood and timber. Kitul, rattan and cardamom should also be given particular emphasis. The villagers must be encouraged to continue traditional agro-forestry practices while growing permanent cash crops such as rubber, tea, pepper, cinnamom and cloves. Other income generating activities such as poultry farming and bee-keeping, and livestock rearing could also be introduced. The buffer zones would not only help to give the villager what he needs but would also protect the inner core of the strictly protected Reserve.

                          Establishing buffer zones would also help to mitigate the resentment caused when state agencies declare inviolate, land that people regard as their common property. Legal enactments and governmental protective measures aimed at safeguarding a forest often alienate the people who live on the peripheries of the forest, and the measures therefore become counter-productive. If the Sinharaja is to be effectively protected the co-operation of the villager must be actively sought. In this context the need for relevant educational programmes cannot be over-emphasised. The Programmes should aim at adding to the villagers knowledge of the nature of the forest ecosystem, and its value to the nation and the world. The villagers knowledge of the forest must be respected and the importance of their help in managing the forest effectively conveyed, thereby making them partners in conservation efforts. A start has been made in the Kudawa area and the effort has proved that villagers are indeed willing proved that villagers are indeed willing to be involved. Plans should therefore be drawn up to set up similar programmes in other villages of the Sinharaja region.

                            A possible future threat to the forest is the increasing number of visitors. Although over-visitation is currently not a major problem, the flow of visitors would certainly increase in the future. As far as possible, a wide cross-section of people ought to be encouraged to visit this unique Reserve. The routes of the visitors however should be restricted, and so organized that they would be able to see the variety the forest offers. This could be accomplished not by expanding the network of motorable roads but by establishing nature trails, designed to cover all aspects of ecological importance be set up while traverse representative areas of disturbed and undisturbed forest, while others could provide or far visiting areas of species interest. However, care should be taken to prevent the Reserve from being converted into public picnic grounds.