Timber extraction is not permitted within the Sinharaja MAB Reserve ; furthermore felling is not permitted within a distance of 1 mile from the boundary of the Reserve. However, selective felling is permitted in other forests surrounding the Sinharaja and is carried out by the State Timber Corporation, mainly through hired private contractors. These activities have led to the Reserve more accessible to illicit timber merchants. Alleged malpractices by the bona fide contractors themselves too have been reported. Here too the lack of clearly demarcated boundaries and adequate supervisory field staff are serious setbacks to enforcing the law.

                   Private land owners along the periphery of the Reserve are also known to be illegitimate users of the timber resources within the forest. On the pretext of felling and transporting timber which is on their own land, these land owners also request permits to transport illicitly felled timber out of the forest.

                   Collection of timber by the villagers for their domestic purposes does not seem to make a significant impact on the Reserve's resources. However, the villagers contribute indirectly to the depredation by being the hired labourers used by unscrupulous timber merchants. To the villager, firewood is the most important forest product both because it is used for his own family as well as for the commercial production of jaggery. The search for firewood is now as increasingly arduous task for the villager and if efforts are not made to provide the villagers with an made to provide the villagers with an alternate source of firewood, their attention will soon be directed towards the readily available trees within the MAB Reserve. In fact the selective removal of favoured species such as Hedawaka (Chaetocarpus castanocarpus and C. coriaceus) for firewood could even lead to their extinction.