Sri Lank’s green tourist destination ambitions threatened by pollution

Dec 02, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka was ranked a greener destination in a recent international rating but its aim to draw tourists by positioning the island as carbon neutral is threatened unless it acts immediately to curb pollution. Sri Lanka was given an overall position of 66 out of 141 countries, after considering the social and environmental factors of the country by the World Economic Forum this year.

The forum considered the ranking as a good sign for a country with an economic growth rate of 6.5 percent during the last two years.

Sri Lanka's tourism’s initiative to position the island as a carbon neutral destination was also endorsed at the forum that was held this October in Switzerland.

But analysts at Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) studying CO2 emissions ranked Sri Lanka in the yellow category, which means the country is not clean.

CARMA predicts Sri Lanka will increase its usage of fossil fuels which will enlarge the country’s carbon footprint.

Officials in the tourism industry predict this will have a considerable impact on visitors if the country fails to act immediately to curb carbon pollution.

"Within the tourism industry, if we do not do enough to ensure that tra