Land Grabbing Through Tourism: Boon or Bane in Kalpitiya
Herman Kumara, National Convener, NAFSO, Sri Lanka
Herman is addressing in the public during the campaign on land rights. Photo credit: Francis Raajan, Praja Abhilasha
Following 30 years of brutal war between the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Military of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL), Sri Lanka is in an accelerated post-war development process. The war was ended in May 2009 and the GOSL is now in a war for development. The aim of the GOSL is to become one of the great “Wonders in Asia” by developing tourism as the major foreign investment driver of the country. By 2014, GOSL is expecting 2.5 million tourists, with an economic impact of 4 Billion USD and by 2020, 4 million tourists, with an economic impact of 8 Billion USD.
In 2005, the tourism development master plan prepared by the Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN), established 15 tourism zones around the coastal belt of Sri Lanka. The Kalpitiya Integrated Tourism Promotion Zone [KITPZ] is coordinating the tourism development work in the Kalpitiya tourism zone, one of 15 proposed tourism zones in the country. It is situated in the Kalpitiya peninsula which has a total land mass of 4000 acres, stretched across 14 islands. KITPZ has proposed to build up to 17 hotels with 5000 rooms, holding 10,000 beds. Small scale food producers, such as small scale fishers, beach seine operators and fish workers and women in fishing communities are being neglected and marginalized without any recognition of their rights.
The National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) and Praja Abhilasha, the Joining Hands network in Sri Lanka, form a land coalition that has been working with the fishing communities in Kalpitiya and has published a community based study (The Investigative Report on the Looting of Sustenance Lands Belonging to Kalpitiya Island Inhabitants) to shed light on the tourism development issues and encourage national and international dialogue on the subject. Among the groups negatively impacted by the land grabbing for tourism development are small scale craft operators, coastal property owners, coastal fish workers, canoe operators, dry fish producers and merchants working on the mainland of Kalpitiya. The land grabbing and hotel constructions have resulted in environmental destruction including the destruction of mangroves, cultural and livelihood disturbances, and blocked access to the beach seine (coast) point, docks, sea, lagoons, churches, mosques and homes. However, people are still courageous and willing to struggle to regain their land and coastal areas.
Sign in Kalpitya. Photo Credit: Francis Raajan, Praja Abhilasha
“We have been living in this isle for generations and we are not prepared to give up our right to land even if we were given money in exchange” says Sampath Pushpakumara, a resident of Mutwal isle who is a part of the peoples’ struggle against the prolific land grabbing taking place in the Kalpitiya peninsula. Residents of the area, almost all of whom are fisher folks, have occupied these lands for the last 70–80 years. As Sampath’s remark aptly highlights, the loss of rights to these lands means that the people are deprived of their ancestry, way of life, as well as their livelihoods, and their future.
Kalpitiya is home to 64,908 people (2009 Census) of which 12,967 people who are engaged in the fisheries industry (FAO 2013). Since 2003, around 1000 acres of land, about 25% of the Kalpitiya islands’ total land area, have been seized in various ways and means from at least 2,500 families. Already 16 resorts/hotels and access roads have been proposed for construction in the area. During the post–tsunami period, hotel and resort businesses acquired the damaged coastal areas at low prices nationwide. Again in 2009, during the post-war period, investors in the tourism industry scrambled to ‘acquire’ potential business sites to capitalize on the war reconstruction phase.
Woman with sign which states “Ensure the right to land ,water and seed.” Photo credit: Francis Raajan, Praja Abhilash
In addition, government sponsored land seizures have occurred by scrupulously removing the names of residents from government documents such as voters’ registries, thereby abusing legal ownership regulations and stipulations of the government and ignoring provisions in customary law. Coercive means have also been used against residents who are unable to produce titles to the land on which they have been occupying and beach ports and docks have been taken by force.
Sri Lanka’s armed forces, state institutions such as the Board of Investment, Sri Lanka Tourist Board, and the Urban Development Authority as well as the private investors engaged in the tourism industry are responsible for the damaging mass scale land acquisitions.
The affected residents of the Kalpitiya peninsula have mobilized over several claims:
- Lack of transparency in the state’s process of land acquisition. There has been no consultative process with local communities prior to the implementation of these development projects.
- Loss of homes, heritage and way of life which amounts to the deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights of the residents.
- Loss of livelihoods for the majority of the population in Kalpitiya area, who are fisher folk, and the loss of the richest fishing grounds in the country, producing around 250–400 Metric tons of dry fish per year. The tourist industry is unlikely to provide equivalent employment for the residents of the area, which would insure them the same level of income and food for their families.
- The state has been deliberately negligent in regards to the conservation of fragile coastal ecosystems. Sea erosion, due to global warming and the islands’ erratic climate conditions, will likely be aggravated by large scale construction projects on the coastlines. Existing mangroves are also threatened which will negatively impact the fisheries and sea food industry in the area.
- The state has failed to respect land tenure rights, customary rights, private ownership and above all, the free, independent and peaceful lives of the Kalpitiya island communities
What you can do to help Kalpitiya Island Communities:
- Send a letter as an individual or a petition as an organized group, community, church or Presbytery to the President of Sri Lanka with a copy to the Minister of Economic Development.
- Prepare an E-petition to gain support from the broader civil society, urging Sri Lankan government authorities not to displace communities in the Kalpitiya area in the name of “bad” development.
- Organize a visit to witness the damage done by these development projects or invite experts from the struggle in Kalpitiya to speak to your community to encourage dialogue around the realities of land grab.
