Objective To estimate the direct financial costs to the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health of treating patients after self-poisoning, particularly from pesticides, in a single district. Methods Data on staff, drug, laboratory and other inputs for each patient admitted for self-poisoning were prospectively collected over a one-month period from one general hospital (2005) and five peripheral hospitals (2006) in the Anuradhapura district. Data on transfers to secondary-and tertiary-level facilities were obtained for a 6-month period from 30 peripheral hospitals. The cost of the inputs in United States dollars (US$), using 2005 figures, was derived from hospital accounts. Findings The average total cost of treating a self-poisoned patient at the general hospital was US$ 31.83, with ward staff input and drugs being the highest expenditure category and only US$ 0.19 of this sum related to capital and maintenance costs. The average total cost of treatment was highest for self-poisoning with pesticides (US$ 49.12). The patients placed in the intensive care unit, who comprised 5% of the total, took up 75% of the overall treatment cost for all self-poisoned patients at the general hospital. The average total cost of treating self-poisoned patients at peripheral hospitals was US$ 3.33. The average patient cost per transfer was US$ 14.03. In 2006, the total cost of treating self-poisoned patients in the Anuradhapura district amounted to US$ 76 599, of which US$ 53 834 were comprised of pesticide self-poisonings. Based on the total treatment cost per self-poisoned patient estimated in this study, the cost of treating self-poisoned patients in all of Sri Lanka in 2004 was estimated at US$ 866 304. Conclusion The cost of treating pesticide self-poisonings may be reduced by promoting the use of less toxic pesticides and possibly by improving case management in primary care hospitals. Additional research is needed to assess if increasing infrastructure and staff at peripheral hospitals could reduce the overall cost to the government, optimize case management and reduce pressure on secondary services.Une traduction en français de ce résumé figure à la fin de l'article. Al final del artículo se facilita una traducción al español.

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Deforestation and forest degradation have become serious environmental issues faced by Sri Lanka. Forest management system of Sri Lanka has been based on 'command and control' approach, which shows a limited involvement of local communities as stakeholders in forest management. It is vital that the society sees the economic benefits of forest conservation, in order to conservation being more meaningful and long lasting. Forest-based ecotourism, a non-consumptive, marketbased approach to forest utilization has received a foremost position, due to its prospective economic and environmental benefits. Through a comprehensive qualitative assessment, the study finds the key constraints and challenges in adopting ecotourism for sustainable forest management as, lack of awareness and understanding on the concept, inadequate coordination, non-compliance to principles and poor interpretation services. It highlights the need for establishing well-coordinated mechanism, assigning clear roles for relevant stakeholders, enhancing private sector participation and establishment of a certification program of ecotourism businesses

Sri Lanka has witnessed a striking increase in both the frequency and intensity of natural disasters over the last few decades. Natural disasters have caused human, physical, fi nancial and environmental losses and made substantial impacts on the economy of Sri Lanka. The impacts of natural disasters are not homogeneous across various segments of the society. The distribution of impacts depends on the degree of physical vulnerability of a particular region to natural disasters and the socio-economic vulnerability. The poor, especially those who are dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods, such as farmers and fi shermen are highly vulnerable to the negative impacts of natural disasters. Given the signifi cant economic costs of natural disasters, disaster management issues have received high policy priority. Apart from reducing the physical vulnerability of the population, social protection systems do have an important complementary role in minimizing the effects of natural disasters. Sri Lanka is well-known to have an extensive social protection system. However, the degree to which the present system provides protection against natural disasters remains unexplored. Thus, the present study assesses the degree of protection provided by the present social protection system in Sri Lanka against natural disasters, identifi es gaps in doing so, and thereby suggests suitable recommendations to strengthen the system. The study reveals that the present social protection system in Sri Lanka is not adequate to address the socio-economic vulnerability due to external shocks created by natural disasters. All the disaster-related socio-economic measures in place are highly skewed towards immediate relief, whereas long-term economic well-being of the disaster vulnerable groups has received minor attention. The disaster insurance schemes are also not properly developed and the existing crop insurance schemes show a low coverage. Microfi nance services also do not adequately respond to the needs of the disaster vulnerable groups. The study recommends the need for making reforms in the existing programmes, thereby to suggest better protection against natural disasters without introducing new measures and increasing the complexity of the system.

Assessment of the economy-wide impacts of tourism has increased importance due to the unprecedented impacts of COVID-19. Computable general equilibrium (CGE) approach is a versatile tool for estimating the economy-wide impacts of tourism, as opposed to alternative general equilibrium approaches and partial equilibrium approaches. However, there has not been any systematic review done on CGE applications in tourism literature. The article reviews CGE applications in tourism over the past 25 years using a systematic quantitative literature review approach. This review presents potentially important applications of CGE models in guiding post-COVID tourism. Further, the article highlights the new developments in CGE modelling, which are yet to be adopted in tourism economics. Existing studies show a strong geographical bias. Notable research gaps exist in the areas of poverty, inequality, gender, environmental and the climate change impacts of tourism. Future research in these areas will be vital to effectively guide post-COVID tourism recovery.