a little island with big ambitions
Louise Heal, last year’s winner of the IoS/Bradt Travel Writing Competition, assesses this country’s plans to boost eco-friendly tourism
Five hornets’ nests hung down from the cliff. As we reached the plat-eau below, one of the nests began to swarm; a black, irate column buzzing from cliff to ground, a little too close for comfort. “It’s OK,” my guide reassured me. “We can wait until they’ve calmed down.”
We didn’t have to wait long. The hornets returned to their cliffside home and we climbed the final steps to the top of Sigiriya, the fifth-century rock fortress in Sri Lanka’s Matale district. The views made the climb – and the close encounter – worthwhile. The green forests and grasslands here host the Sirigiya Sanctuary and Minneriya National Park, providing visitors with abundant opportunities to observe Sri Lanka’s wide variety of wildlife.
Eco-tourism is being seen as a way forward for Sri Lanka’s tourist industry, post tsunami. Renton de Alwis, chairman of the country’s tourism bureau, announced Sri Lanka’s environmental ambitions at the United Nations World Tourism Organisation conference last October, pledging to balance financial growth with ecological accountability by making the country a carbon-neutral destination. Further details on are due to be released at a meeting of the Pacific Asia Travel Association this weekend in Bangkok. A 10-year plan to transform Sri Lanka into an “Earth Lung” began shortly after the conference, with a tree-planting initiative that saw enough trees put in the ground to offset the greenhouse gases produced by last autumn’s England cricket tour.
I got a taste of the eco-conscious tourism that could be Sri Lanka’s future at the Vil Uyana, an “eco-luxury” hotel about five kilometres from Sigiriya, where my room was a two-storey villa with a private plunge pool. This hotel’s attraction lies not just in the level of luxury it offers but in its eco-credentials. Five years ago, Vil Uyana was an abandoned agricultural site, before being developed with the aid of, among others, naturalists from the London Wetland Centre. Its aim to conserve the local environment isn’t confined to asking guests to desist from too many towel changes; visitors are expected to separate wet and dry rubbish in bins in the bedrooms and the hotel has a recycling plant for water and sewage.
Guests at Vil Uyana also benefit from the talents of the hotel’s resident naturalist, Nadeera, who I joined on a bird-watching walk around a nearby lake. As we strolled together, grey parakeets flew overhead while we watched coots and moorhens pick their way around the lotus flowers floating on the water.
On another afternoon, Nadeera and I took a bumpy 30-minute jeep drive to Kaudulla National Park for a spot of elephant-watching. We had only been in the park for a short time when we came across our first sighting: a mother with two calves. All three were unbothered by our presence. Not so the lone juvenile male we came across, which indulged in a little chest-beating.
But I didn’t even have to leave the hotel to enjoy the wildlife. From my private pool, I could admire a whole host of birdlife amid the paddy fields and reed ponds. (There is also a crocodile that visits the restaurant pool.) And three of the trees in the grounds are home to thousands of fruit bats.
Peter Bishop of Tourism Concern, a UK-based charity, believes Sri Lanka’s ambitions for carbon neutrality might be achieved, but he thinks the responsibility, ultimately, remains with the individual tourist. “As tourists, we should question whether we are choosing hotels with environmental credentials that benefit local communities, and assess our carbon footprint while in Sri Lanka,” he says.
Destinations such as Vil Uyana can help us make that choice.
eco tourism greenhouse gases green forests hornets nests last autumn matale district pacific asia travel pacific asia travel association private plunge pool rock fortress storey villa tourism bureau tourist industry vil uyana hotel world tourism organisationIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
May 21st, 2008 at 8:54 am
Renton De Alwis – Somebody’s Watching You
Renton, this will be kept short as possible.
The Paradise Isle is in dire need of foreign investment and tourism to raise its revenue.
Your promises of Transparency in Sri Lanka Tourism are cherished.
The revamp of the Tourist Board, appointment of new staff and a new MD, plus awarding the advertising account to O&M, all welcome.
Lots of CESS to spend eh?
Yesterday I watched an interview on BBC News. One of the Deputy Mayors of London appointed to work on youth crime was questioned. He had but one answer, he was appointed by Boris Johnson, the new Mayor of London. And that whatever happened, he would not comment on anything. As Boris had hired him, all failure’s and success of London will be on Boris.
So as the Chairman, Sir, all successes or failures of Sri Lanka Tourism will be your responsibility.
And;
SOMEBODY’S WATCHING YOU. ALL OF US. DILIGENTLY.
So May 2008;
Dubai – 10,000 visitors.
UK – 100,000 visitors.
Year on year, we hope in 2009, these figure will at least grow to;
Dubai – 20,000
UK – 200,000
Not difficult to mobilise and achieve given all the new appointments of staff, new marketing budgets, opening offices in Dubai, and international advertising agency. Eh?
All the best!
June 29th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Ayubowan! London.Bookwriter
Thanks a million. And the greeting Ayubowan, from its Sanskrit deravative means ‘May all living things on earth have long life’, not just you or I.
Please visit the website www.earthlung.travel for more on the initiatives little Sri Lanka is taking. Yes! transperency, accountability and integrity are virtues we hold. We need the likes of you to watch us all the time. All is not perfect and in a sub-optimal playfield, we do our best as every little drop counts in making the vast ocean. This week’s CNN story on the scientific evidence on climate change and that we are already too late and need to take drastic life style changes is the challenge human kind face. We may not be an Amazon but we are indeed a small green lung on the tip of the Indian sub-continent that can do our little bit to contribute and we do attempt to do that.
Let each of us whether travellers, visitors or just citizens of mother earth, do our bit and learn from each other and also look after each other.
Come visit us in Sri Lanka again and again without guilt and participate in contributing the little drops to the oceans of action before they can get heated up beyond redumption.
Happy guilt free travels to Sri Lanka….