1998 – 2008 10 TH ANNIVERSARY SLEF DEDICATED TO BUILD SUSTAINABLE AND PRO-POOR TOURISM FABRIC IN SRI LANKA

The idea of establishing an organization to promote ecotourism in Sri Lanka was mooted by Palitha Gurusinghe, an academic and well-known personality in the tourism in Sri Lanka. He has been actively engaged in the industry since 1979.
The tourism back ground existed then, in 1990s necessitated in forming up of an environmental and people friendly non-profit tourism organization to motivate the industry segments, tourism authorities and the communities in tourism generating areas in the right direction.
In 1998, tourism industry was the fourth biggest foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka. However, there were many negative aspects, that had a great impact on socioeconomic and sociocultural fabric in Sri Lanka as observed by industry segments itself and the intellectuals as well.
To name some of these negative impacts were, unacceptable sex behavior (prostitution, homosexuality, and child sex abuse), the erosion of traditional values (In family, religion, and education), drug addiction & alcoholism, the impact of tourism on traditional culture, religion and arts & crafts, economic leakage, poverty etc

The main Objective of International Year of Ecotourism (IYE)

•  to generate greater awareness among public authorities, the private sector, civil society and consumers regarding ecotourism's capacity to improve conservation of natural and cultural heritage and local communities standards of living, as well as to encourage respect for nature indigenous cultures and their diversity.

•  To disseminate methods and techniques for ecotourism planning, management, regulation and monitoring to ensure its long term sustainability.

•  To promote exchanges of experience with ecotourism

•  To increase opportunities for efficient marketing and promotion of ecotourism destinations and products

•  To promote minimum quality standards, as well as trustworthy and comparable certification system for ecotourism suppliers
From 1998 onwards, the tourism industry segments, academics, professionals in different disciplines, intellectual and various environmental organizations started talking ecotourism and organizing various forums to promote the concept. The SLEF was already formed then and Palitha was in contact with the late Hon. Dharmasiri Senannayke, then Minister of Tourism in Sri Lanka. Mr. Senanayake was a long-standing personal friend of Palitha who had worked hand in hand in the student movement of Sri Lanka, in early ‘60s, under the banner of Ceylon National Union of Students (CNUS)

Mr. Senanayake was a great nature lover and a dedicated personality who devoted much of his time to the cause of down-trodden people of this country. He saw ecotourism as a radical concept to stop economic leakage caused by the multi-national tour operators in the generating markets and as a means of alleviating poverty in the country.

As we all know Dharmasiri was the ‘man of era' who struggled to usher a socialistic regime in this country.

In 1999, the Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation was working closely with the authorities of Sri Lanka Tourism and Ministry of Forests and Environment. Mr. Dharmasiri Senananyake and Mr. Nandimithra Ekanayake, then Minister of Environment became the Patrons of SLEF and supported in the activities of SLEF. During this period, Palitha had the honor of inviting the late Hon. Madam Sirimavo Bandaranayake, then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, who was known to Palitha from his university days and as a post-graduate student of International Relations enrolled to the first batch of Bandaranayake Center for International Studies (BCIS), to be a Patron and the Advisor of the SLEF. Madame Sirimavo Bandaranayake also was a great nature lover and an admirer of the great cultural heritage of Sri Lanka. Palitha as the member of the CCF Media Committee set up by the Central Cultural Fund (CCF) and chaired by the Hon. Madame Bandaranayake, had the privilege of taking part in various programmes initiated by CCF to promote Heritage Tourism, an important segments of ecotourism.

In the year 1999, SLEF was able to consolidate its position as a pioneer ecotourism organization in Sri Lanka. SLEF was the first organization in Sri Lanka to identify the major issues and challenges confronted in positioning Sri Lanka as an ecotourism destination in the Asia and Pacific Regions. Formulation of National Policies, Guidelines, Regulations and Action Plans were prioritized by the SLEF as far back as 1998, and continuously lobbied with the authorities for the formulation and implementation. SLEF also supported the tourism authorities in all stages, taking part in different forums and contributing input, until those were officially formulated in May, 2003 From the inception of SLEF, it had a right vision on how to steer Sri Lanka Tourism in the right path towards genuine ecotourism. We did our best to incorporate the genuine ecotourism principles in to the future ecotourism fabric in Sri Lanka, so that country could deviate from the traditional mass tourism.
During our Seventh Anniversary (1998-2005), we are happy to mention that SLEF had been able to contribute greatly in developing Ecotourism fabric in Sri Lanka by introducing, promoting and extending our fullest cooperation to the tourism authorities in Sri Lanka. in implementation of the following concepts and programmes.

01. Community Based Ecotourism Enterprises (CBEs) to assure socioeconomic and sociocultural benefits to communities through tourism, thereby supporting them to alleviate poverty.

02. Establishing first ever Research and Training Institute to develop quality ecotourism product

03. Establish a Data Base and Research Centre for South Asian Region (RETSA) to research and disseminate information on Ecotourism.

04. Establish a Small and Medium Scale Tour Operators Network to handle ecotourism business in Sri Lanka.

05. Providing advance training programmes for the ecoguides/interpreters on nature, adventure and ecotourism.

06. Formation of Sri Lanka Eco Tours, as a ‘model Travel Agency' to fund the activities undertaken by SLEF to promote ecotourism, nature and adventure tourism in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Eco Tours is the only commercial tourism travel agent in Sri Lanka that supports directly to sustain community based tourism projects initiated by Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation (SLEF)