Nature, Art & Culture

Preserving and appreciating our diverse eco-system

Appreciating our heritage
Sri Lanka's rich heritage encompasses a smorgasbord of cultures, traditions, religions and ethnicities in addition to an infinite canvas of natural resources, which need to be promoted and cascaded to not only the young and old generations but also to visitors. Sri Lanka Telecom undertakes this as a national responsibility and has over the years, been a flag bearer in creating awareness and promoting the diverse heritage Sri Lanka has to offer.

Sinharaja workshops
Sri Lanka Telecom continues its partnership with the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) aimed at raising awareness among the youth and younger students of Sri Lanka on the importance of nature conservation. The Sinharaja Forest, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the few surviving rainforests in the world. We conduct a two day workshop every month wherein twenty students and five teachers take a tour into the forest reserve, attending a series of lectures and presentations conducted by Prof. Sarath Kotagama, who is also the Head of Zoology, University of Colombo. This workshop is complemented with field trips as well. As a synopsis of the workshop, the students are encouraged to conduct their own research, resulting in assignments modulated by FOGSL and presented in handwritten books. Having launched this programme in 2006, by the end of 2009, 32 programmes were conducted with the participation of 642 students and 144 teachers from 32 schools around the country.

Heritage calendars and complimentary items
As mentioned in the Social Dimension section of this report under the heading 'Appreciating our Heritage', Sri Lanka Telecom has for the last 6 years, produced calendars and complimentary items on the central theme of creating awareness about our heritage, working on the features of arts, culture and bio-diversity. The primary objective is to raise awareness among the general public on the importance of preserving the rich heritage for future generations. Past themes have been produced on endemic bird life, orchids, fresh water fish and kolam masks of Sri Lanka. The 2009 calendar focused on endemic butterflies of Sri Lanka. With butterfly species declining the world over due to increased and careless use of pesticides and insecticides, it was deemed that while Sri Lanka's butterfly population is yet not endangered, it would be timely to create awareness of the danger they were in and appreciate the beauty of these amazing insects. Sri Lanka is blessed with 244 species of butterflies, of which, 23 are endemic. Research and analysis for these calendars were provided by expert resource person Dr. Michael van der Poorten, a butterfly expert, who is involved in writing the most comprehensive book on butterflies. The photographs for the calendar were taken by Dr. Michael Van der Poorten.