Holistic Approaches in Mental Health and Wellness
Deforestation an Ditsimpacton Tourism in WillPattu National Park
Abstract
Doan Trung Thanh and Hawpe Gamage Lahiru Asanka
Sri Lankan tourism sector has a vital connection with natural environment. Eco-based tourism is a main component of Sri Lankan tourism industry. Deforestation has many disadvantages and negative effects on Sri Lankan tourism industry. Wilpattu forest complex (WFC) is a major ecosystem with rich biodiversity and high tourist attraction. After the end of three decades of civil war in 2009, many human activities initiated within the forest complex. This study mainly focuses on Upper Wilpattu area in WFC where the resettlement programmes occurred. This study evaluates the deforestation and its effect on tourism industry in WNP. The research was designed to evaluate the effects of forests cover clearance to the wild life and its consequence threat to the tourism industry. The current study investigated the land use pattern changes of last 32 years from 1988 to 2020 using developed satellite images in Arc GIS. Based on the results, a dramatic increase of deforest areas in Upper WFC has been evaluated. Nearly 60.5 Km2from total land area of 473 Km2 have been lost due to anthropogenic activities and government resettlement programme conducted within the forest premises.
Survives including a questionnaire survey (n=79) was conducted to examine the effect of resettlement programme to the wild life and tourism industry. Majority of respondents (74.7%) believed that the resettlement programme causes for environmental changes and affects negatively to the natural environment. Moreover, 58 of respondents (73.4%) believed resettlement has a significant impact on wild life in WNP. About 75.9% of respondents agreed human activities and resettlement programme caused significant impact on wild life and the tourism industry in WNP. Hence, this research reveals that, there were limited human activities1 and deforestation before 2009. The main cause of the deforestation is the IDP resettlement programme after the civil war. The deforestation has a major damage to the entire forest complex and the total forest area is becoming more fragmented, which affects the balance of the valuable natural eco-system of the area.
The research finds out that the tourism in WNP has been negatively influenced by
- Decreasing the eco-tourist attractions in the park, due to the damage to the habitats and the population decrease of flagship species
- The visitor dissatisfaction with wildlife tourism experiences at a highly visited national park in Sri Lanka
- The deterioration of tourism environment. The government should take immediate measures to control the human activities within the area to promote wild life tourism in WNP and enhance the value of the forest system.