Community Based Tourism and Urban Wetland Integration in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Sri Lanka: A Qualitative Case Study of Community Participation and Empowerment.

Sammanfattning

Wetlands in cities are an essential part of an integrated ecosystem and provide crucial environmental and climatic resilience to the rapid urbanisation of developing mega-cities. Through this case study, qualitative data is used to assess how the strategic integration of community-based tourism (CBT), specifically within the wetland complex of Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the administrative capital of Sri Lanka, is being implemented. Kotte has gained international recognition as a Ramsar Wetland City (2018) and consists of a series of interconnected waterways and urban wetlands, notably; (the Diyawanna Lake Basin) composed of associated urban land/water interfaces and those surrounding both Beddagana and Diyasaru wetland parks. These landscapes have been ecologically degraded as a result of urbanisation, combined with the discharge of untreated effluents into the waterways, and the presence of an increasing number of plant species typically considered invasive, such as the Pond Apple (Annona glabra) species. The study is based on an interpretivist framework and incorporates multiple methods of collecting data through semi-structured stake holder interviews (N=10), an analysis of secondary policy documents and an analysis of available mapped data with field observations. This study will evaluate the socio-economic, environmental and institutional structures that influence wetland governance in Kotte. Findings from empirical research indicate that there has been a substantial shift in the socioecology of community imagination, moving away from historically perceived wetlands as dangerous "waste dumps" toward recognizing wetlands as important and valued public goods contributing to community quality of life. Despite these changes, there continues to be a substantial gap in participation and trust between local communities and provincial/state administration. Using Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation and the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS) as analytical frameworks, public engagement is depicted as continuing to reflect tokenism and performance. Tourism development is implemented through strict top-down organisational structures established by centralised institutions such as the Sri Lanka Land Development Corporation (SLLDC) and the Urban Development Authority (UDA), resulting in severe institutional fragmentation, overlapping administrative responsibilities, and loss of tourism-related revenue from local communities. In addition, there are significant barriers for local stakeholder participation in tourism (e.g., no access to start-up equity capital, inadequate training in sustainable nature guiding, and lack of access to technology due to previous generations) that negatively impact their ability to compete in the global online travel market.