Elephants Never Forget: Capturing Nature at the Border of Ruhuna National Park (Yala), Sri Lanka Mara Benadusi* Introduction: Sri Lanka’s Third Wave of Liberalism Yala National Park, in south-eastern Sri Lanka, is a complex of adjoining natural reserves covering a large forested area partly open to tourists (Figure 1). The park is surrounded by a wide swath of shrub jungle that serves as a buffer zone separating the protected lands from the nearest rural villages. There have long been disputes over access to natural resources in this region, but they became more heated after 2009 when the state finally emerged victorious from a long civil war with Tamil separatist rebels, established in the north-eastern territories. With the conflict resolved, the government was able to repackage the country as a new Asian destination for international tourism. Back in 2002, when it had briefly appeared that the country’s civil war would come to an end, a coalition led by the United National Party (UNP) sought to initiate an operation of massive privatization and deregulation of private land holdings. The government drafted its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), entitled Regaining Sri Lanka: Vision and Strategy for Accelerated Development, and got it approved by multiple entities, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and USAID (Government of Sri Lanka 2002). The PRSP essentially aimed at transforming the island into a resort destination for travelers in search of tropical paradises, complete with both significant historical-natural attractions and all the comforts of luxury tourism. To this end, Regaining Sri Lanka pivoted on three main elements: accelerating privatization by transferring state-owned assets to the private sector and establishing public-private partnerships; passing legal reforms, including new laws on fiscal responsibility and intellectual property, as well as labor market flexibility and land titling; and reducing trade and regulatory barriers (Skanthakumar 2013). Due to heavy popular opposition, however, the plan was shelved for two years. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami offered a chance to re-launch it. Although then- president Chandrika Kumaratunga belonged to a center-left coalition, she used the tidal wave to promote policies of massive privatization and opening to the free market. Both under Kumaratunga and later, when management of the emergency passed to Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2005, the government sought to capitalize on the catastrophe by exploiting the massive inflow of emergency funds from international *Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy. Email: mara.benadusi@unict.it Capitalism Nature Socialism, 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2014.971419 © 2014 The Center for Political Ecology www.cnsjournal.org Downloaded by [Mara Benadusi] at 14:05 23 October 2014