Trapped between unscrupulous microfinance companies and duplicitous governments, Sri Lanka’s rural women farmers are drowning in debt. Over 200 have committed suicide, some with their young children; families have been wrecked and…
World Water Day 2021, at the start of a critical decade for climate action and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), opens with an outcry by stakeholders about the impacts of ongoing rampant deforestation…
These are some of the ideas that were heard recently from various parties in the dialogues and debates on environment and development. The essence of these expressions is the notion that the…
In the past several years, we can see that a remarkable change has been occurring in Sri Lanka. A society which is disproportionally dominated by male voices and perspectives, has seen and…
Whenever President Gotabaya Rajapaksa embarks on a “discussion with the villagers” visit, Sri Lanka’s environmental defenders shudder in anticipation of yet another verbal executive order resulting in the destruction of more trees,…
If colonization is the exercise of hegemony, administrative control and the fundamental subjugation of one group of peoples to another, then the question for post-independent Sri Lanka should be whether or not…
Using the policy tool of a dedicated special economic zone for services, the Colombo Port City in Sri Lanka aspires to become an international financial centre after the pandemic in a bid…
Circular MWFC/1/20201 issued on 4 November by the Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Conservation has caused widespread concern and consternation. This circular seeks to make all Sri Lanka’s other state forests (OSFs)…
David Attenborough Forest conservation is primarily about the survival of people, of us, as a species, of protecting ourselves from the detrimental consequences of our own actions. Yet we seem to be…
Environmentalists are up in arms once again as the government withdrew two circulars that protected 700,000 hectares of forests, which are now in danger of being destroyed so that the land could…
The primary objective of Secretary Pompeo’s visit to South and South East Asia (Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Indonesia and Vietnam) was to drum up support for the US Republican team in the…
In 2020, the United Nations completes seven and half decades since its inauguration and since its Charter came into operation on October 24, 1945. Following the brutality of war and the misery…
In a rare victory for Sri Lanka’s environmental defenders, the government has decided to cancel the gazette issuing legal documents to people illegally occupying state lands. A concerted lobbying effort by individuals,…
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, drew the attention of the world to the situation in Sri Lanka on 14 September, 2020 stating, “I encourage the Council to…
As the country hurtles along the path of development at any cost, its environmental defenders are facing a host of challenges on all sides. From illegal road construction and illegal clearing of…
