Trees For Life - December 2005

Tourists visiting the southern coast of Sri Lanka soon will have the opportunity to visit newly settled families affected by tsunami and plant trees of food, medicinal or economical value. Most of the resettlement houses built in Sri Lanka are on bare land cleared for construction and these newly settled families do not have adequate shelter and basic food security in terms of having their own coconut, jack fruit or curry leave trees, essential items of any Sri Lankan home.

Mr Hiran Cooray, President of the Tourists Hotels Association of Sri Lanka said “Trees for life programme aims to engage our hotel industry and their guests to participate in helping re- vegetate the coastal belt and provide trees with food, medicinal and economical value to newly settled families affected by the Tsunami. It is planned to at least vegetate 30 villages and a number of selected coastal areas. Objectives of this programme are also linked to conducting training; developing satellite nurseries to create self-employment for aspiring nursery keepers and education/awareness programmes for regional schools in better environmental practices.

Since trees absorbed the impact of the tsunami areas with thick vegetation, the devastation was minimal. He further added “Our industry is such an intergraded industry, when tourists visit the country it is not only the hotels and tour operators that benefit, it is also our farmers and fishermen that benefits from tourism. In the hour of need, tourists did so much to help us very caringly; they helped building houses and restoring livelihoods. Just visiting the coast, you will be very surprised see how many fishing boats have been donated by tourists and how many houses have been built. We would like to say thank you to all of those who cared and helped us”

Hotels in the southern coastal belt will identify buffer zone stretches that needs to be re- vegetated, that can be looked after and maintained by them and newly settled families/villages who need trees. By doing this, the hotels will directly engage in coast conservational efforts and also help the newly settled families with trees for food and medicine. Most importantly, hotels and their staff outreaching the village communities can facilitate better links with the local communities possibly leading to identifying other areas of assistance that the tourism industry could possibly help with.

Mr. Vasantha Leelananda, President of Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators commenting on these efforts said that “We are approaching one year after the tsunami and we have undergone a very challenging period to come to terms with the devastation to life and property. Customers of our industry- loyal visitors and our tour operators did their best to help us in numerous ways. This is yet another effort of our industry to help the environment and local communities”.

By engaging the tourists to plant trees an opportunity will be created to make visits to selected sites or the villages (as promoted by the hotel) and plant trees creating a direct link with the recipient families. A donation of Rs 1,000 will be requested from tourists to participate in the programme. This revenue will offset some of the cost of plants to be distributed free of charge and meet next year’s nursery operational costs. Tourists will be issued a certificate of appreciation.

For interested visitors, hotels will develop a tour possibly involving their local three wheeler drivers to visit the nursery to collect trees and then to visit the recipient family or the coastal site to plant. Hotels located away from Galle will collect a batch of plants from the nursery and have those available for their guests at the hotel.

‘Trees for Life’ programme is implemented by the Responsible Tourism Partnership (RTP) in Sri Lanka sponsored by the United Kingdom based the Travel Foundation (TF) which promotes sustainable tourism. The RTP is an industry-led body whose members and advisers include a cross section of tourism industry representatives. Presidents of Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL- Mr Hiran Cooray) and Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO- Mr.Vasantha Leelananda) are Co-Chairs. The Travel Foundation has sponsored 100,000 plants to set up ‘Buonavista Tree Nursery’ in Rumassala Galle with ‘The Tree Society of Sri Lanka’ - Ruk Rakaganno. Trees will be available for planting from 26th December 2006. Opening hours of the nursery will be 9.00 am to 4.00 pm Prepared by the Responsible Tourism Partnership - Sri Lanka,
Contact- Charmarie Maelge + 94 773251088 & E mail: rtpcmaelge@sltnet.lk

16 December 2005