STEWARDSHIP AND GOVERNANCE OF RECREATIONAL TRAILS

Pekeo Trail - Social leveller committed to sustainability

- By Miguel Cunat

Aiming to attract 5 million tourists by 2030, Sri Lanka is striving hard to become one of the world's leading tourist attractions with everything in one place for travellers or tourists.

From golden beaches, blue seas with a variety of marine life to misty mountains, wildlife, historically important archaeological sites, Sri Lanka has a golden egg in its platter. However, adventurous trails are still largely missing from the list, and only a few tourists would have heard about Pekoe Trail, an adventurous trek from Kandy to higher elevations across tea plantations, wild life sanctuaries and mountains ranges.

Miguel Cunat, Founder of Pekoe Trail, in conversation with Galeo Saintz, Founding Chair of the World Trails Network (2012-2022), CEO and Founder of Trails + Wanderlust, and international expert on trail stewardship, standards, and governance.

As Sri Lanka looks to secure the long-term future of Pekoe Trail, questions of stewardship, governance, and stakeholder representation are more urgent than ever. How can a trail of this scale be managed responsibly? And more broadly, how can trail tourism truly flourish in Sri Lanka? The answer lies in getting the foundations right — establishing credible governance, fair stakeholder representation, and clear national standards that will allow the trail, and the wider sector, to grow in a sustainable and inclusive way.

Galeo Saintz: Stewardship is really at the heart of trail work. It's not about control or ownership, it's about guiding the direction in which a trail develops, creating the right conditions for it to thrive, and fostering autonomy so that many different stakeholders can contribute to its success. Good stewardship builds self-organisation: communities, businesses, and institutions all find their place and role. Without stewardship, trails risk being exploited, neglected, or pulled in competing directions. With it, they become shared assets that evolve responsibly.