Be the custodians of our natural wealth: Cinnamon’s Head of Ecotourism

Monday, 16 June 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Cinnamon’s Head of Ecotourism Chitral Jayatilake addressed a recent gathering at Bentota Beach Hotel commemorating International Day on Biological Diversity. This year’s theme was island biodiversity. Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts has endeavoured with much success to live to its pledge, I will be green. Island biodiversity becomes an important discussion given that with a legacy of a unique evolutionary history, island ecosystems are irreplaceable treasures. Just 64,000 square km in land extend, Sri Lanka is already home to 21 million people and amazingly hosts over 5,000 elephants in our wilds. We are also home to one of the densest populations of leopard at the Yala National Park while 27 cetaceans exist in our ocean including the largest mammal that ever lived on Earth- the blue whale. This makes Sri Lanka an incredible biodiversity hot spot to be nurtured and protected. Several reasons for this island’s richness were explained by Chitral.:

Home to 5,000+ elephants in the wild
Hosts the densest population of leopard in Yala and across the Island
500+ birds including the migrant species
254 butterflies in the island
120 species of dragonflies
92 land mammals
82 types of freshwater fish
100+ species of snake
Over 120 amphibians
4,000 flowering plants

The staggering rate of endemic species puts this unique island among the most diversely rich habitats in the world. We constantly ask why, and there could be several reasons for this exceptional richness of plant and animal species in Sri Lanka, which is part of a Global Biodiversity Hotspot. The answer is likely related to the island’s humid climate, with many parts of its southwest quarter receiving more than 2,500 mm of rainfall annually. Heavy climatic stress across small geographical regions can accommodate a burst of speciation which perhaps argues well for this almost freak like biological richness. The island compliments this diversity with 22 national parks and three strict natural reserves while the terrain is almost heavenly with a wet zone in the central part of the island isolated by the intermediate zones and flanked by the arid dry zones on either side. This is further complimented by rivers, mangroves, valleys, plains and dry shrub forests. Sri Lanka truly is a melody of diverse habitats that is home to a myriad of fauna and flora in unusual densities. Adding to this natural diversity, a bygone civilisation pinned their prosperity to an irrigational economy and built over a thousand tanks or mini reservoirs. The forests subsequently reclaimed these areas and created habitats which now team with wildlife often seen in our national parks such as Minneriya and Yala. This epic natural wealth has caught the eye of the world with more than a dozen documentaries already filmed by major networks such as BBC, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. World renowned writer and photographer Angela Scott described Yala in her own inimitable manner when she said, “If God ever created a patch of land for leopards, it must be Yala.” We are the custodians of a rare jewel, an explosion of natural wealth packed into an island which is presently in a hurry to develop after a prolonged internal conflict. It is the duty of all responsible Sri Lankans to ensure that we achieve our development goals while ensuring the sustainability of our natural world which is a gift of nature to be cherished and nurtured by all. Jayatilake is the Head of Ecotourism for Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts and is author of ‘Moments of Truth’ and co-author of ‘The Wilds of Lanka’.