The project, Conservation of Sea Turtles and Coastal Habitats around Anantara Tangalle, aims to replicate the success of Anantara’s sustainability initiatives through the Dollars for Deeds programme in other countries such as Thailand.

The project generates and enrich the environment and ecosystem knowledge around the resort area and help the resort to capitalize on the natural resource base; add value to the guest services; and promote sharing of nature-based benefits to communities, resort staff and guests.

Interactive session with Prof. Devaka Weerakoon Photo: IUCN

To this extent, three staff awareness programmes have already been conducted during the past nine months. Furthering the reach of the programme, a knowledge sharing session was held by IUCN on 27 January 2018 exclusively for guests staying at Anantara Tangalle.  The session was conducted by Professor Devaka Weerakoon, Senior Professor at the University of Colombo and IUCN lead consultant for the project.

Prof. Weerakoon informed the guests highlighting the biological diversity of Sri Lanka, the 25^th largest island in the world, while emphasizing a number of unique features of the country especially in the southern coast where Anantara Tangalle is located at.   For example, Prof. Weerakoon said that the world’s largest animal (Blue whale), Asia’s largest terrestrial animal (Asian elephant) and the world’s smallest terrestrial mammal (Pigmy shrew) are present in and around Sri Lanka. They can be observed within a span of about four hours, year around. Apart from the above factors, high endemicity (species recorded only in Sri Lanka) is another unique feature, which Sri Lanka can be proud of.

The interactive session covered topics such as evolution, Sri Lanka’s biodiversity in terms of fauna and flora, geomorphology and threats to biodiversity.  Protected areas designated for wildlife—a main tourist attraction—and related issues were also discussed.