Environmental choices

On Dutch Bay in the Kalpitiya Islands, a Sri Lankan couple prepares a fishing net, as they've done every day for the last 25 years. Ambrose and his wife, Renuka, survive on the fish they catch from the waters that lap just a few feet from where they stand. They say their lives are about to change.

"This area is good for us. If we have to go to another area we will be unable to make a living," Renuka said. "We have the lagoon and the sea, and fishing from them is the only way we can make a living."

Off the coast of Kalpitiya, the fishermen get to work, casting large nets in the sea before pulling them in with along with their catch. The coastline is crucial to the fishermen, but it has already becoming prime real estate for tourist development, which is expected to affect both the ecosystem and fishermen's livelihoods.

Tourism may force the couple to leave. Kalpitiya Islands, in western Sri Lanka, are set to become home to 17 high-end resorts.

Who owns the land?

Ambrose and Renuka said thousands of fishermen and women have spent half of the year at Dutch Bay, living on Kalpitiya's vast swathes of untouched beaches. Most migrate between the east and west coasts as the monsoon winds shift. Because the families move from one part of the country to the other, few of them own deeds to these coastal lands.

"There is talk that we may have to leave, but no decision has been made yet," Ambrose said. "If the government asks us to go we will have to move because we have don't have deeds."

"It is sad because if we leave this place, we will have nowhere to live," Renuka added.

The islands of Kalpitiya are home to a marine sanctuary, full of sea turtles, dolphins, mangroves and coral reefs. The lush vegetation and beaches are picturesque, and are only a few hours by car or train from Colombo, Sri Lanka's largest city.

Now that Sri Lankan's nearly 30-year civil war is over, the government is eager to use tourism as a means of economic expansion. It has approved development plans like the one in Kalpitiya all over the country. But concerns linger about whether development will happen sustainably and take nature's biodiversity and the livelihoods of the local fishermen into account.

Ignoring locals

"Given the history of what we have gone through in previous tourism surges, we can predict that if we do not become wiser in how we approach these developments, we will let the same problems occur," said Jayampathy Samarakoon, an ecologist in Colombo.

"If it was going to be done in a sustainable way, there would be negotiation with the fishermen. There would be negotiations and discussion with all the parties involved. If that is not going on, the predictable consequence will match what has happened in Sri Lanka before, which is the destruction of coastal ecosystems and the loss of livelihood," Samarakoon said.

According to Samarakoon, the country's roughly 50,000 small-scale fishermen are crucial to the country's food security. They are the source of Sri Lanka's affordable fish supply.

Tourism, development help fishermen

Developer Neil D'Silva has already broken ground on a new five-star resort in Kalpitiya. He said developing the tourism industry will improve the livelihoods of local fishermen.

"If you're looking at responsible tourism for affluent travelers, today, they want to see the lifestyle of these fishermen," D'Silva said. "They want to know how these guys lay a net in the morning. They want to step on white sand. Go catch a fish with a local fisherman and give it to the fisherman's wife to cook it Sri Lankan style. And that's what this whole responsible tourism concept is about. It's a beautiful drama."

D'Silva said the government required him and other developers to go through an extensive environmental assessment (EIA), to preserve the environment.

"Construction is construction but that's why the EIA gets into details of how you construct such structures there," D'Silva said. "When you say this is my design, a team of environmentalists takes over. [They] tell you to redesign the master plan according to your rich biodiversity."

Living with tourism

But while Sri Lanka does require an environmental assessment, Samarakoon said there needs to be a political will to ensure the rules are enforced.

"There are regulations, but that does not for a moment mean that those regulations cannot be bypassed," he said. "In a political context where power is extremely skewed towards people who have wealth, all these regulations and procedures become very weak."

For now, the fishermen and women wait. One fisherman named Rathnayake has lived here for 15 years, supporting himself and his family from the sea and the coconut grove he maintains. His landlord already told him he will need to move. But Rathnayake said he's hopeful that fisherman can coexist with tourists, once they arrive.

"As long as we have a way to make a living, then there is no problem with tourism," Rathnayake said.

Authors: Lily Jamali, Yasmeen Quereshi

Editor: Sean Sinico