Yala wildlife tour in Sri Lanka

Planet

WILDERNESS IS OUR LUXURY
As a wilderness camp Tree Tops Jungle Lodge can boast of a big headline; - a claim that wilderness is the luxury. We are proud to state that we have, over many years, created our own wilderness and our 25 acres jungle property is in a permanent ‘re-wilding process’.

MINIMAL LAND USE ETHOS
Our 25 acres property is reserved for a very limited number of guests … just three tented chalets. The management ethos is to avoid "over-development" but preserve the original and authentic atmosphere. A piece of a wild Sri Lanka experienced in a silent and individual way.Good for the place, for the guests, for the wildlife, for the birds.

Our property has no fence or boundary to the forest; it is part of the larger ecosystem. Not only is our bush camp location naturally regenerated to wilderness, the lodge property is also situated along the boundary of a protected conservation forest and even merged with the forest.

TREE PLANTING
The camp property is a land where biodiversity is permanently growing and is left to natural rewilding. Natural trees and bushes grow and is increasingly used as habitat by more birds, insects, mammals, lizards etc. Moreover, re-wilding is facilitated by constant planting of trees as a part of our work; - a passion and also a part of the ecotourism vision.

SAFARI TOURS ETHOS
The safari tours inside the national park is conducted with respect for all regulations and we constantly consider potential improvements of details related to our own behavior on safari drives in the national park.

Two ways introduced by the safari operator to minimize disturbance of animals by our vehicles is to minimizing the use of mobile phone information about presence of animals. It means we try to avoid the ‘jeep jams’ frequently happening around wild animals in the park. Basically we intend to track ‘our own animals’. This is very much an ideal target and it cannot always happen in this way, yet it is our guideline.

We use a ‘fair trade’ salary payment policy and pay more than market average for the staff team in order to de-motivate ‘tips-conscious’ behavior by our staff, especially important when it comes to safari. When involving new drivers we educate them, making them aware of our ideals and guidelines and how our clients hope to see the safari to unfold. It means by any means avoiding chasing and disturbing wildlife and avoid the jams.

People

This is a wildlife watching and bush camp stay that is operated by an ecotourism operator with excellent credentials and has been honored with the Wild Asia Responsible Tourism Award. A very high high degree of community participation is ensured by the management concepts of the camp operator / ecolodge located in forest close to Yala National Park.

This ecolodge camp is not only located in a jungle but offers a very authentic local experience due to the community based ways of running this wilderness camp. The camp is operated and managed by a locally recruited staff team.

The whole operation including rewilding and giving back wild habitat to elephants is made possible by the clients booking with us. Here tourism has a 100% positve impact by generating nature tourism based jobs for people from a remote area where there is otherwise no access into tourism. Good for the local community as well as for travelers looking for real experiences with an authentic feel.

The staff is offered training on the job. The operator hire staff looking for informal talents more than exam papers with the intention to integrate an alternative type of people into nature tourism by using their natural skills and background from living in wild areas. This is considered a very useful qualification by this ecotourism operator and necessary training is provided.