SAVING SRI LANKA’S RAINFORESTS: HINIDUMA BIO-LINK PROJECT

Located in south-west Sri Lanka, the Sinharaja Forest Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is the last remaining viable pocket of primary tropical rainforest in the country. According to UNESCO, over 60 percent of the trees in this forest are endemic and many are considered rare. Similarly, much of the wildlife found in the Sinharaja are endemic to Sri Lanka - this includes mammals, insects, reptiles and rare amphibians.

Due to a long history of deforestation across Sri Lanka much of Sri Lanka’s precious rainforests have been destroyed, making the preservation of what’s left vital for the survival of native flora and fauna. The Hiniduma Bio-link Project aimed to do just that. A CSR effort lead by the Carbon Consulting Company aims to establish a biodiversity corridor between two large remnant disturbed rainforest patches - Sinharaja and Kanneliya. In partnership with the Carbon Consulting Company, Patagonia and Hirdaramani Group pledged to match donations to the project - funding 2,000 trees each to be planted as a part of the regeneration project.

The project hopes to improve the biodiversity of the region and the lives of rural farmers in local communities. Hirdaramani's sustainability team travelled to the Hiniduma Bio-Link location for the official launch of the project.