Sinharaja Forest Reserve is visited annually by many people and in most cases the ecotourism is contributing positively to the conservation of the rainforest and to the species that inhabited it. Sadly however there have been some rumours that construction of an ‘eco-tourist’ hotel has been taking place for some time now within the reserve As a result of the hotel construction, many trees are being felled both for the actual construction and for resort infrastructure. Recently a contributory to a local river has been dammed causing many species of both flora and fauna to be displaced. The water from the newly dammed river will act as a source of drinking water for the hotel residence.
The problem is that the construction of this hotel is being backed by the ‘eco-tourism’ bandwagon and sadly, as yet, concerned local people are not seeing the benefits of the eco-tourism business, that is to say that so far they have had no involvement in the planning or the construction of the hotel and it is widely believed that many species of animal including one elephant have been killed as a result.
As I understand it the contributory has been completely dammed and therefore many species has been displaced as a result. If such conservation organisations, such as IUCN and WWF (among others I would assume) are providing funds for management plans and programmes (IUCN summary 405, p70) then surely such activities must have been properly evaluated and approved before hand.
If so;
Why has the river and so many species been affected?
Who has evaluated beforehand the construction of the hotel?
What exactly is protected under World Heritage Protection?
As Sinharaja Forest Reserve is, and I cite the Justification for inclusion on the World Heritage List as recommended in the IUCN summary 405,
• Earth’s evolutionary history. Sinharaja’s flora is a relic of Gondwanaland and thus is of importance to our scientific understanding of continental drift. The presence of the Sinharaja basic zone is also a geological feature of considerable interest.
• An on-going Biological Evolution. The reserve is the last remaining relatively undisturbed tropical humid evergreen forest in Sri Lanka.
• A habitat for Rare and Endangered Species. At least 139 endemic plant species are found in the reserve. Fauna endemism also exceeds 50% and there are various rare birds, reptiles, fish and insects.
sydney karunawardhana