Rainforests are one of the most important eco-systems left on earth.
They store billions of tons of carbon, helping to ward off climate change.
Tropical forests remain untapped resources for medical and scientific discoveries.
They are also home to thousands of unique animal and plant species that depend on them for protection and survival. Habitat loss is the primary cause of species extinction that we are witnessing today.
Home to traditional people and their indigenous knowledge
Rainforests represent the greatest biomass as well as biodiversity of any terrestrial ecosystem. They store billions of tons of carbon as well as providing a large amount of Ecosystem Services planet-wide. They act as vast repositories of biodiversity, containing many new discoveries in medicine and science. In Sri Lanka the standing rainforests today are less than 3% of what existed 200 years ago. Many reduced to small patches ever decreasing in size. Today their existence is threatened, by illegal clearing, logging and opening up for industrial agriculture. Unless there is a focused drive to protect these unique and valuable forests they could be lost by the turn of the century.
The Rainforest Trust of Sri Lanka was founded in the year 2004, in the backdrop of rapidly diminishing and fragmenting patches of rainforests unaddressed by the Government of Sri Lanka and the authorities. The reasoning was that by purchasing critical bits of the remnant rainforests and connecting them through corridors, much of the endangered rainforest biodiversity could be sustained. As a trust, the patches of rainforest under its ownership will be preserved for posterity. The Trust also seeks to purchase and restore patches of land that was once rainforest but has now been degraded into bare grasslands.
The Trust’s vision is saving the last remaining small patches of existing rainforests by acquisition of such forest land and sustaining them as forests or by encouraging the Government to extend protection to the unprotected forest patches. The Rainforest Trust of Sri Lanka is registered with the Public Trustees Department in Colombo, and the Public Trustee is also on our Trust as per the trust agreement.
Our core values and mission objectives are pursued through land acquisition (forest land) for biodiversity / biomass restoration, regeneration of degraded forests, creation of critical forest linkages connecting otherwise isolated pockets of jungle, and education of local people in conservation and sustainable livelihoods.