This month’s Nations Trust Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) monthly lecture titled ‘Building a Thousand Species refuge – WNPS PLANT’s groundbreaking effort to save our diversity’ will be delivered by Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne on January 16 at 6 p.m. at the Jasmine Hall, BMICH.
Pioneering private conservation in Sri Lanka, WNPS PLANT’s network of lands now protects over a thousand species across almost thirty locations in the endemic rich southwestern regions.
Sri Lanka’s forest cover has degraded over the past decades in a massive way. Protecting both state-owned and privately- owned forest patches is vital to save our endemic and endangered flora and fauna. The southwestern regions also have the highest development activity within the country, where nearly 50% of the island’s human population live, as do the vast majority of our endemics.
The biggest threat to our forests and wildlife habitats are human activities such as urbanisation, agricultural expansion, illegal land grabs and ill-advised development projects.
What is WNPS PLANT and what were its origins? What exactly do the teams do, and where and why and how? Is this a solution and can it be sustained? What challenges and issues are being faced? Which critically endangered species occupy PLANT sites? What new insights are being gathered for conservation in Sri Lanka?
Speaking on this topic will be the Chairman of PLANT and Past President of WNPS, Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne.
The monthly lecture of the WNPS is supported by Nations Trust Bank. It is open to both members and non-members, with free entrance.
This article first appeared in The Sunday Times on Sunday the 12th of January 2025.
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