User:Syrthiss/Kirala Kelle Wetlands Conservation Project

Kirala Kelle Wetlands Conservation Project- Sri Lanka
The Kirala Kelle Community Based Ecotourism Project is located 3km from the southern coastal city of Matara, and 1½ hrs journey from the Sinharaja virgin rainforest. The project area, Kirila Kelle Wetlands, has been declared for wild life conservation and a Gazette Notification published by the Department of Wildlife Conservation Sri Lanka has already granted legal power for the purpose. The Project covers an area of 750 acres of natural wetland that has been identified locally as a most unprotected area that nurtures the greatest proportion of bio diversity. Some 6,000 acres of formerly fertile and prosperous land has been abandoned as an unfavourable consequence of the Nilwala River Flood Protection Scheme. The scope is to conserve the natural wetland and to restore to some extent,lost social and economic status to the 35,000 villagers, whose paddy fields, cultivatable land and livestock were destroyed as a result of the abandoned Nilwala scheme. The failure of the scheme resulted in the once farm level villagers becoming virtually paupers.

What is Ecotourism?
Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the Environment and improves the well-being of local people.

Environmental Degradation of the Wetland
Illicit liquor gambling, drugs and crimes against the person (especially women) have become a matter of course for villagers over recent years. Environmental degradation due to firewood collection and wildlife loss have been the norm since farmland was lost.

What is expected from the project is to conserve the core 750 acres of natural Wetland which nurtures many rare and endemic species of birds, reptiles and fish, while making this project a model for the country. The surrounding 6000 acres will be rejuvenated to further support the local community, of some 35,000 people, to reconnect and rebuild the community.

Community Based Ecotourism Development
The Kirala Kelle CBE Project is complying with the following accepted Ecotourism Principals, in developing the area to conserve the environment and empower the community to achieve sustainable development through Ecotourism.

Advisory Committee and Stakeholders
An advisory committee has already been formed, including all the stakeholders of the public sector, private sector, non-governmental organizations and philanthropists managed by the Community Based Organization. The management committee is governed by a body empowered with the authority of coordinating and maintaining the inter-relationships between the organizations. The ultimatum is to conserve the environment and achieve social and economic development through sustainable Eco-tourism, with the direct supervision and guidance provided by the Sri Lanka Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Environment and all other line-ministries and agencies.

Project Aims
The Kirala Kelle Project has a core commitment to assisting marginalized and disadvantaged people in the area. By working with marginalized groups everyone will gain ownership and share in the outcomes. This can be done by providing training in vital job skills to reduce poverty, enhance employability, empower youth to become productive citizens, enable entrepreneurship, stimulate broad-based economic development, and accelerate social transformation especially in relation to women. It is proposed that this project become a model conservation project for Sri Lanka.

Local Hopes for the Project
The hope is to conserve this precious local environment and make this area prosperous and sustainable for future generations. This will be achieved through the conservation and development of resources and obtaining local and international assistance, and taking every opportunity to make the community self-reliant, and focussed on the development of the family unit. In addition to the above, if the influx of tourism to this country since the Sri Lankan Civil War, and the 2004 tsunami is not received in a well-planned manner, it could lead to a disaster in the exploitation of the culture and values of Sri Lanka. The wish is to make this local project a universal model for Sri Lanka in environmental conservation and community development though sustainable ecotourism. Finally the local people wish to make Sri Lanka a Serendip for all tourists and to replicate this project concept in other parts of Sri Lanka to build a sustainable tourist and environmentally harmonious tourist industry.