'Trees for life' from Hoteliers' club
Tourists visiting the southern coast of Sri Lanka in the near future will
have the opportunity to visit newly settled families affected by tsunami and
then 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 the newly settled families do not have adequate
shelter and basic food security in terms of having their own coconut, Jak
fruit trees or curry leave plants, essential items of any Sri Lankan home.
President of the Tourists Hotels' Association of Sri Lanka Hiran Cooray,
said' "Trees for life program 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 values 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 programs for regional
schools in better environmental practices.
Since trees cushioned the impact of the tsunami, by absorption, in areas
with thick vegetation the devastation was minimal". He further added "Our
industry is such an intergraded industry, that when tourists visit the
country it is not only the hotels and tour operators that benefit, but 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 to see several fishing boats have been donated by
tourists and 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. 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.
Vasantha Leelananda, President of Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour
Operators commenting on these efforts said, "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 arrange visits to selected sites or to 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
program. 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.
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