Sri lanka
D
Examples
of
Environmental
Sustainable
and
Ecotourism
in
Sri
Lanka
emocratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an isle in the Indian subcontinent. It counts about 20 million inhabitants with an area of 65,610 km²1. Sri Lanka has 1,340km of seaside, mostly composed of white sand beaches but is also known for its high level ofbiodiversity; which come from wide range of topographic and climatic variations to a high proportion of endemic species among its fauna and flora2
In
addition
to
own
remarkable
ecosystems,
nevertheless
fragile,
recently
prone
to
natural
disasters,
like
the
2004
tsunami;
Sri
Lanka
is
also
a
land
inhabited
by
poor
and
very
traditional
Sri
Lanka
Map
populations.
Indeed,
Sri Lanka’s population is very diverse, even if it consists of two main groups: the Sinhalese and Tamils. The Sinhalese form the majority group with 69% of the population and live mainly in the southwestern part of the island while the Tamils have severalcommunities3. In 2009, more than 400,000 tourists came in Sri Lanka and it approximately creates 125,000 direct or indirect jobs4. So we can say that tourism positively impacts Sri Lanka economy, however it also impacts the environment and threatens its durability. That’s why in this particular context some measures are taken to protect Sri-Lankais life place and preserve goodwill Sri Lanka tourismindustry. Indeed, firstly based on low cost seaside resorts tourism; nowadays it seems that ecotourism and Tour Operator including Sri Lanka fauna and flora discover are more and more attractive.
1
Gouësset.C,
(07/04/2010),
“Democratic
Socialist
Republic
of
Sri
Lanka:
some
basic
facts”,
L’Express
Unawatuna
Beach,
Sri
Lanka
[Online]
available
at:
http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/?url=http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/asie/sri-?lanka-?fiche-? reperes_485531.html=lire%20en%20ligne
2
Sir
Marcus
Fernando
Mawatha,
(2005),
“Environment
in
Sri
Lanka”,
Columbo,
Forestry
And
Environment
Society,
[Online]
available
at:
http://www.environmentlanka.com/biodiv.html
3
Language
planning
in
the
world, (2010),
”Sri
Lanka”,
[Online]
available
at:
http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/asie/srila.htm
4
Sri
Lanka
Tourism
(2010)
“Annual
Statistical
Report
2009”,
[Online]
available
at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35085947/Annual-?Report-?2009
1
There
is
no
universal
definition of
ecotourism
but
we
can
definite
it
like
a
responsible
tourism
in
natural
areas
that
conserves
the
environment
and
contributes
to
the
well
being
of
local
people5.
There
for
national
tourism
authorities
of
Sri
Lanka
have not
actually
put
in
place
a
clear
policy
of
sustainable
tourism,
responsible
tourism
comes
more
from
non-? governmental
organizations
and
private
which
try
to
initiate
programs
of
ecotourism:
we
can
note
organizations
like
Sri
Lanka…