In 1894, when the Game Protection Society of Ceylon was established by a group of British colonialists who recognized that the local wildlife and their habitats were beginning to disappear, they could not have foreseen the monumental organization it would become a century later. Gratitude is due to those early pioneers and their successors who laid the foundation for modern conservation in Sri Lanka and for the creation of the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society (WNPS).

Over the years, the WNPS had had to adapt, and grow, as the human population of the island soared and increased development placed greater pressures on the wilderness and its wild inhabitants. The greatest threat to wildlife now is from unplanned development resulting in encroachment into natural habitat, and the destruction of hitherto balanced ecosystems. Where once the Society had to deal with a major issue or two during the course of a year, problems now arise on a daily basis, from the length and breadth of the country, from marine to terrestrial, from mountain to coast, and the WNPS has to respond to as many as it can; its history demands it.

There was a time, even a decade ago, when the Head Office of the WNPS had just three or four officers to administer it. No longer, for the volume of work is such that a team of 31 are now necessary to undertake its basic functions. There was a time when the Society could manage with just three permanent sub-committees to cater to the conservation issues of the time. Today, Conservation has had to be broken up into all of its myriad components as each area faces a threat.

Yet, the Society also finds the resources to maintain its bungalows, conduct its monthly Public Lecture Series, take its members on expertly guided trips to wild destinations, and continue to publish its journals, Loris and Warana, leading wildlife publications of today.

Who pays? This begs the question of where is the funding found for all of this. The subscriptions of its registered Members cannot. Instead, the funds are found by the hard work of the Executive Committee in finding donors for each and every function of the Society. Where just a few years ago it was thought an achievement if an amount of four or five million rupees could be raised during the course of a year, a couple of hundred million are now required to sustain the work of the Society, and it is found.

This is not just a tribute to the hard work and commitment of the Committee, but also to the increased understanding, especially in the corporate world, that Nature and Wildlife must be protected for the benefit of humankind, and they have begun to give generously towards this cause. However, they do demand accountability and the Society must ensure that it not only provides this but adds value to the projects that it is involved in.

The volume of work

The summary given below clearly illustrates the multitude of projects of the Society in 2023:

1. Mangrove Restoration - The WNPS played an instrumental role in Sri Lanka being declared a UN World Restoration Flagship. The Society spearheaded the Nation’s mangrove restoration efforts through a science-based, collaborative approach at the Anawilundawa Accelerated Natural Regeneration of Mangroves Project (ANRM).

2. Empowering Conservation Conversations - The NTB WNPS monthly lectures serve as a dynamic platform for knowledge dissemination and community engagement.

3. PLANT – Since its establishment in 2020, PLANT has led the nation’s most progressive habitat conservation effort to take place in the last few decades. This involves the monumental collaboration for conservation, through which 2500 acres of forest, 15 Km of forest corridor, and countless species, are now under the Society’s protection.

4. HEC – not only is this Committee working hard to stop the escalating deaths of wild elephants, but it is also trying to change local community perspectives of this endangered species by actively engaging with them, particularly with farmers, to protect them and their livelihoods. The Society is testing a low-cost Light Repel System (LRS) to keep elephants out of villages and cultivations and is working with academia and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) to develop a special collar that will keep persistent male elephants away from these places, and has also undertaken a microbial study of elephants in the Elephant Transit Home (ETH) to try and determine the safe antibiotics for use on elephants. The HEC Report has already been referred to in the CNN article on the plight of our Elephants.

5.  Wildcats – The WNPS/LOLC Multi-Regional Monitoring System is Sri Lanka’s most comprehensive effort to support the conservation of leopards and other wildcats outside protected areas. 100 awareness-building programmes were conducted.

6. Endemics – Recognising the importance of preserving Sri Lanka’s rich biodiversity, the WNPS and Hemas Holdings PLC have partnered in an ambitious project to preserve, often overlooked, critically endangered endemic species.  

7. Saving Mannar – The WNPS leads the charge in the battle for Mannar, by mobilising media, communities, individuals, and many others to urge the authorities to bring a halt to the massive damage being caused by the proposed Adani Mannar Windfarm.

8. Toque Monkey – The WNPS played a leading role in the global campaign to prevent the Government’s ill-conceived plan to export 100,000 toque macaques to China.

9. Youth Wing - The WNPS Youth Wing continues to nurture Sri Lanka’s next generation of conservationists through wide-ranging engagement programmes conducted throughout the year.

The above is a mere snapshot of all that was done by WNPS in 2023 and continues to do with the guidance of science and the passion and commitment of a dedicated few.