27th June 2009
Oxigen’s forestry nursery in Sri Lanka is set in beautiful mountain country near Kurunegala, north west of Kandy. I have come here with Caniut Silva, Oxigen’s director in Sri Lanka, to meet Dang Dinh Hien, vice director of the Tram Huong company in Hanoi, north Vietnam. Dang is an expert in agarwood, and is helping us with our plantation development at Puttalam.
He’s brought some seeds with him from Hanoi, and some aquilaria saplings already growing up short sticks in pots. Dang tells me that his joint stock company is unique in Vietnam, and has built up an international reputation for the latest technology in infecting aquilaria so the trees produce agarwood. He has some agarwood chips which he shows me how to burn for incense, and agarwood perfume in a small bottle which he rubs on my hand. He says the perfume is “supernatural, showing aesthetic features of economic and political power.” Well that seems a pretty good reason for growing it!
There is something slightly surreal about watching Dang as he places the seeds in sand within their netted enclosures. Oxigen has brought together a truly international group for our plantations, British, Sri Lankan and now the agarwood guru from Hanoi.
June 30th, 2009 in
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25th June 2009
I accompany Jay Perera, Oxigen’s international director, to a symposium of the Business for Peace Alliance in Colombo. The BPA has been set up since the ending of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tigers) to bring in new investment throughout the country, including the Tamil areas in the north.
The conference has attracted a strong presence from the UK, which is important as the BPA is hoping for an influx of money from the Sri Lankan diaspora throughout the world. Jay tells me there are one million Sri Lankans in England, 700,000 of them Tamils.
There is good support for the symposium from the Sri Lankan government, with an array of ministers taking part. Delegates hear from a variety of business people seeking extra funds, including one from a buffalo curd farm in Anuradhapura, which needs 20 million Rupees to expand. The owner says demand for curd exceeds supply and the farm, which employs 20 people, could prosper with “a touch of professionalism in marketing.”
We also hear about a safari tours company in Hambantota, a pottery and IT skills college. Jay joins the platform to emphasise that the BPA is non partisan, enjoying backing from the Singalese majority and the Tamils. “I will support this initiative with everything I have got as a way of giving something back to my country.” he says. Jay has lived in the UK for 33 years. Networking in one of the breaks I meet a property developer from Bournemouth, who reckons the beaches at Trincomalee are the best in the world, even beating his home Dorset Riviera.
24th June 2009
Early morning at Udawalewa National Park midway between Ratnapura and Moneragala. This is the base of the Elephant Transit Home. It’s where young elephants found wandering abandoned in the jungle are taken till they are old enough to be released back into the wild. We see Oxi and Gen, the two elephants Oxigen is sponsoring at the centre. Elephants come into the pen two by two to be fed milk then shuffle away back to the herd till the next feed. Oxigen is paying for the upkeep of the two elephants who may stay for up the five years. It’s a worthy cause and an opportunity to give something back.
When the British were the colonial power in what was then Ceylon, elephants were slaughtered in their thousands. Now they are treasured, though risk remains to those living away from the national parks and side by side with humans in an increasingly fragile relationship as the population grows and housing expands into their natural habitat.
"Oxi" comes in for his early morning feed
21st June 2009
Oxigen’s estate at Welikanda is on the eastern side of the island, not far from Polonnaruwa. In the dry season, forestry and agriculture here depends for water on what the Sri Lankans call “tanks”, vast reservoirs dating back about two thousand years when they were built by various kings. The tanks are drained down channels, and Arjuna Dissanayaka, who has day to day responsibility for both this plantation and the one at Puttalam, shows me where a wild elephant got trapped and had to be coaxed out. As we watch, a herdsman drives his buffalo across the channel. A real Sri Lankan moment.
June 30th, 2009 in
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20th June 2009
Oxigen’s plantation at Puttalam is a four hour drive up the west coast from Colombo. This used to be one of the main routes to the north, for so long the fiefdom of the Tamil Tigers. Driving around Sri Lanka is a throwback to pre motorway Britain, a bit like bumpy B roads clogged by chugging lorries and darting, omni-present trishaws (three wheelers driven by motorbike engines). Beyond Puttalam the road descends into a pot-holed track as we head up to the plantation. The sun is scorching here, but in the autumn this area will be drenched by the monsoon.
Handing out supplies to the local school
After meeting the local foresters, we make our way the Morapathawa primary school at Vanthavilluwa to present some calculators and other equipment to the principal, Sampath Chaminda. Many of the plantation workers’ children attend here. The place is in urgent need of modernisation, with lunch cooked in a small concrete shed, and the toilet in a hut with a small hole in the ground. This has to service eighty children and the staff. When you hear the teachers complaining about wild elephants wandering in the playground, and the need for an electric fence, this might sound exotic, but life in this part of the world is a daily challenge.
June 30th, 2009 in
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19th June 2009
Straight off the plane from Heathrow for a meeting with Mr Ratnasivi Wickramanayaka in his splendid office in Colombo, with its echoes of the colonial past. He’s been Prime Minister for the past five years, and this was a rare privilege. At 76, Mr Wickramanayaka is the most senior Parliamentarian in Sri Lanka. This is his second stint as PM, having first served in 2001 when he succeeded the late Mrs Sirimaro Bandaranaike.
John Fryer meets with Mr Wickramanayaka
It was highly useful for us to discuss matters with him as he’s a former Minister for Plantation Industries and Agriculture. We briefed him on Oxigen’s agroforestry developments, especially related to agarwood. The Prime Minister read for the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, and not only possesses a wealth of political experience but a keen sense of humour. I told the PM that I had been present at a briefing on London last week by the Overseas Trade Minister Professor G.L. Peiris, where he had emphasized the importance of foreign investment, and we were proud to be making our contribution. After 45 minutes the meeting came to an end. A truly memorable occasion.
