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Friday, 1 April 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The steady increase in visitor numbers to Yala National Park since 2009 has resulted in a variety of threats to the wildlife of the park and over-visitation and inability to enforce the park rules by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) are leading causes for the damage and the threat to the park itself, asserts Wayfarers Ltd. Director/CEO Nishad Wijetunga.
Calling for strict enforcement of the laws within National Parks in order to protect the wildlife and preserve the parks, Wijetunga warned that if matters are not corrected fast, it will be a matter of time before all large tour operators from the UK and European markets pull out of Yala, given the global trend towards responsible and sustainable tourism practices.
“Whilst giving top priority to preserving the natural habitat, we have to find a way of balancing all of the other elements if we want to preserve what is Yala,” he affirmed, pointing out that continuing as things are will result in Yala National Park becoming a ‘white elephant’ in less than a decade.
Following are excerpts of an interview:
Q: Tell me the history about Yala? 
A: Yala or Ruhuna National Park is the second largest national park in Sri Lanka. The British discovered this wilderness with plenty of game, and originally used the area as their hunting ground. Later under British law the area was designated as a wildlife sanctuary in 1900 and a national park in 1938.
The park consists of five blocks, two of which are now open to the public. The blocks have individual names such as, Ruhuna National Park (block 1) and Kumana National Park or ‘Yala East’ for the adjoining area which is approached from the East of the Island or north side of the National Park. Yala became a popular National Park for both local and foreign visitors and now is by far the most visited in the island.
In recent times Yala has become a major attraction due to the high density of leopards in the park and their behavioural patterns in not being shy to show themselves, etc., which has increased the sightings and with it the popularity of Yala.
Q: What should be the overall goals of Yala i.e. preserve and showcase natural habitat, earn foreign currency, a park for locals to enjoy, create jobs for locals, etc.?
A: Being a National Park and vested with the Department of Wildlife Conservation, its objective is clearly to protect the wildlife and preserve their natural habitat. Everything else comes thereafter.
Different stakeholders will have different objectives. Local and foreign visitors to the park would like to enjoy its natural beauty and wildlife sightings. The Wildlife Department and Government will want to earn money/foreign currency, etc., and of course the politicians will look at it as a means of providing employment or small business opportunity to people in the area.
So if you prioritise the questions, then first would be to preserve and showcase natural habitat whilst earning foreign currency; the park to be enjoyed by local and foreign visitors and jobs for locals will follow. However, if the first priority is not achieved, none of the rest will even exist. Therefore, whilst giving top priority to preserving the natural habitat, we have to find a way of balancing all of the other elements if we want to preserve what is Yala.
Q: What’s the global trend on wildlife parks in the context of tourism?
A: Clientele from the mature tourism generating markets (or experienced travellers) such as UK, Europe, USA, Australia, etc. are now looking for more adventure and ‘local’ experiences in the destinations they visit. This makes wildlife parks particularly popular amongst these travellers who will probably be more responsible in relation to travellers form the new generating markets such as India and China (less experienced travellers) who also visit wildlife parks, not particularly because they are interested in the experience but, simply to ‘tick the box’ as it were, and a majority of these are less responsible visitors.
Globally wildlife parks are getting more popular amongst tourists and there is an increase in visitation across the globe. Therefore, global wildlife park tourism is to be given the level of public policy recognition that it deserves by more consistent and thorough procedure for the collection of visitation and economic data.
Guidelines for the measurement of economic impact of parks are being developed to evaluate economic models. These visitor-use data will be the base for the calculation of global tourism economic impacts. With the movement toward documentation of tourism’s volume and impact, discussion is starting on the evaluation of the park management’s ability to handle tourism. The development of management effectiveness guidelines and procedures can assist policymakers, senior management, and the public in understanding the capability of park manager’s and their institutions.
Many parks are starting to move towards agency management structures that function like corporations within government. This involves:
It is probable that higher fees will be charged. Over time a much higher proportion of revenue will come from merchandise and food sales than now occurs. Innovative funding mechanisms, such as licensing of park names or cooperative public-private ventures in special purpose merchandise, are under way.
All of the above measures are being considered and implemented due to the high visitation of parks globally and to ensure sustainability of these establishments. It is imperative that Sri Lanka studies these trends and implement some of the best practices enforced by other parks to ensure the sustainability of all National Parks in general and Yala in particular.
Q: What has changed in Yala over the last few years?
A: If we consider a timeframe starting with 2009, visitation numbers to Yala have seen a drastically steady increase. Numbers are as follows: The total number of around 120,000 in 2009 of which 90,000 were local and 30,000 foreign. In revenue terms the numbers were approximately Rs. 4 million and 50 million respectively, while in 2013 the number is approximately Rs. 12.2 million and 272.5 million respectively where the number has steadily increased to around 380,000 in 2013 with 240,000 local and 140,000 foreign visitors.
This is a significant increase and both 2014 and 2015 has grown even more rapidly. This rapid increase in visitor numbers has in turn caused a variety of threats to the wildlife of the park, which is the very reason the visitors are drawn to the park. Over-visitation and with it the inability to enforce the park rules by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) are leading causes for the damage and the threat to the park itself. The numbers will keep growing with tourism set to reach 2.2 million by the end of 2016.
Q: How do you see Yala at current state in 10 years?
A: Sadly a ‘white elephant’ for sure if the trend continues and may not even take 10 years!
Q: What actions do you recommend to authorities?
A: I would strongly recommend the authorities to enforce the laws prevailing under the current Fauna and Flora Act under which the parks are governed. These laws too need updating as times have changed but, at least if the current laws are strictly enforced, which is all the authorities can do at the moment, the situation in the park will not deteriorate as fast as it has happened so far.
There are many lessons to be learned from our closest neighbour India. They enforce laws to ensure restricted visitation to their National Parks. For example, one of the oldest National Parks in India is the Jim Corbett National Park which is a tiger reserve with 521sqkm. The park has been divided into five buffer or core areas that can be visited by tourists. Each of them have their own gate to control entry into the park. Visitors both local and foreign can enter these zones in jeeps that are registered with the park only and not in their individual vehicles. Further there is a restriction of 25 vehicles at a time from each gate. All of these vehicles are small petrol jeeps which and carry up to six passengers and ensure silent movement within the park.
There are several other measures that can be taken to limit visitation, but these need to be done with support from all stakeholders as the authorities only are unable to enforce until the laws are updated. The most important is to restrict the number of vehicles in the park at any given time. This can be done by increasing the number of entry points to the park and restricting the number of vehicles per gate.
Q: How do foreign tour operators and foreign guests perceive Yala?
A: Foreign tour operators working through local DMCs would probably account for around 70% of foreign visitors to Yala. Of these, the operators conscious about responsible tourism practices have already started taking Yala out of their itineraries as it is perceived as over-visited, driver indiscipline and the lack of action being taken against the perpetrators.
The way I see it, if things are not corrected fast it would be a matter of time before all large tour operators from the UK and European markets pull out of Yala. The global trend is more and more towards responsible and sustainable tourism practices and tour operators in generating markets do not want to be branded as irresponsible and promoters of unsustainable practices, which is why they will pull out.
This is what happened with Pinnawala some years ago and it has not returned to the itineraries of these large tour operators as yet. Born Free did articles on the bad practices at Pinnawala which resulted in Pinnawala being taken off the itineraries. As the bulk of the income to all of these facilities is from foreign tourists, when the tour operators pull out the institution feels the loss. If we don’t correct the situation in Yala, this would probably be the same fate that would befall Yala.
Q: What about other wildlife parks, e.g. Udawalawe, Wilpattu, why are they better?
A: Udawalawe, Wilpattu, Wasgamuwa, Bundala, Kumana and Minneriya are the other parks that are frequented by visitors. Of the 27 National Parks in the island, these are the only parks that can be visited as the rest of them have no proper infrastructure to handle visitors. No roads network, proper entry and exit points and trackers. As an alternative to Yala in terms of spotting leopards, except Wilpattu, there is no other National Park in the island where one could get even a glimpse of the elusive leopard. As for elephants, Udawalawe and Minneriya are popular parks and one is pretty much guaranteed of seeing elephants in their natural habitat in these locations.
It has been six years since 2009 but the infrastructure in the less popular parks such as Wasgamuwa, Galoya and Maduruoya which are on tourist routes and can be easily promoted, have not been attended to. Part of the issue is that though the National Parks bring in large revenues, these revenues are taken in by the Treasury and what is put back into the parks or the Wildlife Department is insufficient for the department to carry out the necessary ground work such as cutting road networks, employing trackers, etc. to make these parks accessible. Even when it comes to Yala and other parks that bring in revenue, the department is constantly unable to carry out necessary work or employ a sufficient number of trackers due to funding issues.
Q: What is the tourism industry doing about the problem?
A: Over the years, the largest industry association representing DMCs, SLAITO, have carried out various training programs for jeep drivers and trackers with the blessings of the Department of Wildlife and Nature Protection, but these have not had much effect as the jeep drivers simply don’t seem to understand that it is they themselves who are ruining their livelihood by not adhering to the laws and advice given to them by the industry and other interested groups.
We had a system of blacklisting jeep drivers for bad behaviour and violation of laws within the park. This should be given more exposure and these drivers should be barred from entering the park. What used to happen though is with political interference, these drivers are back in business before you know it. They therefore feel that they can get away with anything. This trend however seems to be changing and we hope it will for the sake of Yala.
Q: What are the immediate steps the authorities must take within the next six months?
A: Strictly enforce the laws within the National Parks, especially with regard to speed to be maintained by the jeeps, not allowing vehicles in without a tracker, etc., back the trackers who work hard to try and maintain law and order within the parks when they are on rounds and encourage them by recognising their good work. Work towards a policy of restricting numbers and also insisting on a minimum of six per jeep in the case of tourist vehicles. This will need the cooperation of the DMCs and jeep drivers as well.
