“Eco-tourism” as a ommunity based forest management approach. (A study of Hiyare forest reserve, Sri Lanka)

Abstract

The Hiyare forest reserve is one of the isolated forests located in Akmeemana D S division in the Galle district. It is located 20km a way from Galle and there is a reservoir in the middle of the forest reserve. The forest reserve is situated between 60 2' - 60 5' North latitudes and 800 18' - 800 23' East longitudes. It is comprised of 443 acres of land and the reservoir covers 75 acres of the reserve. The main research objectives are, firstly, identify the potentiality for ecotourism within the Hiyare forest reserve and secondly, to analyze the possibility of using community based forest conservation approach at grass root level for sustainable forest management and conservation. As the research methodology, observation, questionnaire survey, interviews and case studies were used. The study reveals that there is high potential for ecotourism due to the remarkable landscape of the reserve marked with high bio-diversity, interior reservoir, moor land and catchments areas. In addition, a large number of tourists often visits the reserve and it was observed that most of them are scholars and researchers. Further, the livelihood of the peripheral communities of the Hiyare forest reserve depends mostly on agriculture and tea, cinnamon cultivation and farming were observed as major agricultural activities. However, the forest utilization of these local communities from the forest buffer zone engaged with destructive and harmful activities. Thus, considering all the potentialities within the reserve, the reserve, can be developed into a research and study center on ecotourism which is based on community based forest conservation approach.