Sustainability

Managing Human Elephant Conflict in Buttala Divisional Secretariat - Konketiya Village

Sri Lanka truly is “A land of Elephants”.

With almost 6,000 wild elephants roaming the island, Sri Lankan lives and culture are intertwined with elephants and we have always loved and adored them.

But recent developments have neither benefited humans nor elephants. The Human Elephant Conflict has escalated so drastically and quickly in the recent past that both parties have suffered immensely.

Elephants in major sub-ecosystems such as Wasgamuwa, Yala & Wilpattu have reacted in astonishingly different ways to strategies implemented against them by humans. Their problem-solving skills include being able to use tools to overcome the obstacles that are placed in their way.

The unfortunate truth about the majority of projects is that they are implemented with only human well-being in mind and with no consideration or empathy for the elephants. Some are even implemented with vested political and commercial interests at heart. Although it’s painfully obvious, habitats for elephants haven't been a focus of many HEC management approaches in the country.

Short term solutions have cost enormous amounts of public money, lives, crops and time with little to no results. To put some of the spending in perspective, 450 million rupees (USD 228,350) is invested annually in managing the HEC in the Buttala area only. However, as mentioned before, this expenditure hasn’t yielded the expected results. Yet, despite that colossal spend in that area, 14 human deaths and 3 elephant deaths have been recorded since 2019 in the Buttala Divisional Secretariat.

We want to work on the wellbeing of Humans, Elephants & Habitats concurrently and deliver a long-lasting solution. We also aim to approach projects with community participation where people take the ownership of the projects and their actions.

Our latest project is in the Buttala Divisional Secretariat - Konketiya Village and we have collaborated with “All for Nature” in the Netherlands and “Sri Lanka Wilderness Foundation” to see this through.

Currently we have shortlisted the Elephant Trench & Concreting method, mostly because of the strong disappointment expressed by the community and the area officials towards previously implemented methods. They have tried them all and failed. However, we are still researching alternative methods and getting consultations from experts.

The project report is given below and we look forward to your comments and feedback.

Read the project proposal

Project team -

Nishanthi Kulathunga - Manager - FTO - ET

Yasantha Kuruwita Arachchi - Assistant Manager - Business Development - ET

Migara Perera - Assistant Manager - Sustainability - ET

Chaminda Attanayake - Assistant Wildlife Officer - DWC

We are a local organization with a global focus that facilitate world class tourism experiences and wilderness accommodation that are socially and environmentally responsible, that embraces our motto to provide innovative and passionate service to our customers in a manner that is financially rewarding for our employees and stakeholder.

Sustainability Policy

1. Our Mission towards Social and Environmental Sustainability

We are a local organization with a global focus that facilitate world class tourism experiences and wilderness accommodation that are socially and environmentally responsible, that embraces our motto to provide innovative and passionate service to our customers in a manner that is financially rewarding for our employees and stakeholder.

2. Sustaining People

Our Objective is to provide a sustainable working environment by making their work exciting, safe and progressive, in a physically and spiritually enhanced work environment that provides flexibility, autonomy with respect to one another including diversity and equality.

We aim at getting the best suited candidate from the available human resource pool. This is done through comprehensive interviewing process and clear job roles.

Identifying the knowledge and skills of staff members and using such understanding to provide the best suited job role is primary. The basis for recruitment, hiring, placement, training, compensation and career advancements are considered as the key attributes to making this process successful.

Orient each new staff member or a staff member who takes up a new role by way of written and oral guidance. We aim to provide the shortest and a comprehensive path to achieving this.

3. Sustaining Communities ( local)

We trust in involving the local communities and conducting our business in a manner that creates sustainable livelihood for the local communities. Such efforts include purchasing for our consumption, educating and providing resources as and when the opportunity arises for their betterment.

4. Sustainable Supply chain

We believe in facilitating our supply chain in a sustainable manner by selecting supply/ suppliers/ partners who conduct business in a responsible manner. And that they abide by the aspects that are respected by Eco Team.

Suppliers shall employ all employees of their own free will with no employee being subject to forced or bonded labor.

5. Environmental Sustainability

Our core business is based on environmental sustainability. As such preserving the nature in its purest form is one of our main missions. We conduct our business demonstrating good stewardship in preserving the natural environment by adopting and following practices that benefit the environment and our customers. Part of our effort is to educate our customers so that they in turn become spokes people for preserving the natural environment.

5.1 Natural Environment

In conducting our day to day activities we focus on preserving the natural habitat of the natural environment. This includes fauna and flora

Given every single opportunity we get we aim to do something extra to preserve the natural environment

Each of our staff member is provided a orientation with our role in providing a sustainable natural environment.

5.2 Water

Our focus is to provide our customers and our employees’ water that is safe for consumption. In doing so we adopt methods that limit wastage of drinking water.

5.3 Energy

We seek to achieve continuous improvement in energy-related performance. In so doing, compliance with statutory requirements is assumed to be the minimum standard. We aim to have carbon neutrality in providing accommodation

6. Our Customers

We aim to provide experiences to our customers that are sustainable and created in a socially and environmentally sustainable environment.

Why we do not promote following attractions

You may find that we have not included certain common tourist attractions that are generally found in other programme designs; namely, the turtle hatcheries on the southern coast, the Pinnawala elephant orphanage, the Habarana elephant rides and the Bullock Cart Trail. These are not included due to conservation and ethical reasons.

Turtle Hatcheries

We do not encourage our visitors to patronize the turtle hatcheries as this concept has serious negative aspects in terms of conservation. We encourage visitors to observe turtles in their natural habitats. For further information check the link below.

Turtle hatcheries

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage

We do not encourage our clients to visit the above either. We do not agree with the concept of how the establishment is run. We are happy to see that even the Born Free Foundation has now taken a similar stand.

Elephant back rides – Habarana

We have concerns about the way this is being done. However, there may be a few ethical operators but in general, we do not agree with the “working hours”, how they give rest to the animals, trails they use etc.

Traditional village tour with a canoe trip and bullock carts – Habarana

This is an extremely commercialized touristic operation where a lot is “staged”. We encourage the visitors to have less touristic experiences and instead experience the real Sri Lanka.

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Hotline : (+94) 70 222 8 222

Follow Us - Fb. / Tw. / Inst.

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