Sri Lanka eco lodge accommodation
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
The lodge is located in uninhabited nature and it's our aim to be in norms with our wild surroundings.
Therefore, we stick to a philosophy of minimalism: the more discrete, the better. The result is an extremely low impact lodge made from natural materials: clay dug from our land and fallen wood found in the forest.
A self-imposed restriction ensures that any hotel like development and expansion is avoided. That means the lodge must be not bigger than a maximum of 5 accommodation units. This is the best way to preserve the original experience at the lodge as well as a precondition for managing the place without electric light which would spoil the experience and discourage wild animals from moving close the lodge.
The lodge has for more than a decade been a base for environmental activism aiming at protecting forest and elephants. It's situated among main elephant tracks and right on paths earlier used by hunters and loggers on their way into the forest.
In January 2002 the lodge opened for tourists and began using ecotourism as a way forward. A tool to conserve the environment through creating new nature based jobs. Simply by using the nature in a constructive – not destructive way in the local area which is a wilderness, forest as well as slash and burn cultivation area north of the Yala National Park.
By inviting tourists to come and live with the jungle lodge team in the wilderness it is our aim to create awareness amongst the local community and authorities about the special value of the nature outside the national park. We do not follow any blue print project implementation program and we are economically 100% depending on the arrival of visitors. But we are always working to use our influence and network so as to preserve this unique piece of nature from the threat of destruction.
Saving the wild natural habitats and forests outside the national park is the most important way to solve the 'human-elephant conflict', the main threat to the Sri Lankan elephant population. Deforestation and habitat fragmentation create conflict with problems of elephants raiding paddy fields etc. The lodge is situated in a border area between protected areas and human habitation as well as farming areas so this area is also a place to witness this part of life in remote rural areas. That is why we refer to our approach as ‘reality tourism’.
We are very passionate about preserving our local area as elephant habitat but also working for co-existence between humans and elephants. Through our local community based organization working for preserving biodiversity combined with further income generating business initiatives, such as camping safari in Yala National Park, we intend to support and push the development the way that we find right.
The lodge is a place where magical moments with elephants can be experienced. Not observed from a vehicle but on foot- or from a chair. Below quote expresses beautifully what this special experience is about:
"The silence of the elephant bespeaks the silence of the watcher. For to stand in silence and observe even a single elephant is to render time motionless. It is to be transfixed by one of nature’s most miraculous creations. In the presence of the elephant, we feel our own humility". To engage in the eyes of these elephants is to feel both pleasure and pain; pleasure because they remind us of qualities we admire – loyalty, strength, dignity and intelligence; pain because we know that these creatures which walked the earth long before humans, may well disappear within our lifetime. The plight of these elephants is of our own making. If we allow them to disappear, we are allowing part of us to vanish as well. It is that part of us that believes the earth is for all creatures to share..."
Teresa Cannon & Peter Davis, Aliya. Stories of the Elephants of Sri Lanka. Airavata Press 1995
Community
All staff members are from the local area and trained and educated for tourism at the lodge. Using their natural sense of hospitality.
Sustainable tourism is part of the solution to the problems of the area as small scale responsible tourism will generate an income among the local community and thereby reduce their need of hunting and logging. At the same time the management depend on the villager's local knowledge of the jungle.
The huts are made as a combination of the villager's traditional skills and the managements' ideas about design and functional aspects. Only simple technology used at the lodge and it can be handled, repaired and managed by the local staff.
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