With its long-standing Buddhist tradition, Sri Lanka has an entrenched environmental ethic. This customary affiliation with wild places and their animal inhabitants is exemplified by the fact that the world's first wildlife sanctuary was located here, created by King Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd Century BC. The importance of undisturbed forestland was also a concept well understood by ancient Sri Lankan royalty, manifested in the form of "Thahanankalle" or forbidden forests, which often encompassed watersheds.

The island has something to suit almost any preference, from the red earth and scrub forest of the dry zone, to the verdant splendor of the tropical rainforest; from the coastal mangroves alive with bird life to the stunning beauty of the hill country, replete with spectacular waterfalls and mist drenched montane forest. Add to this over 2500 years of recorded history, a mosaic of diverse and potent cultures and a rich archaeological heritage and one has the ideal ingredients for enlightening ecological travel.

First research attempts at growing a 'rain forest' and increasing the biodiversity in a Pinus plantation in the buffer zone of Sinharaja by introducing endemic canopy species (saplings in the middle) and other of utility value to villagers (foreground) in specially created gaps in the plantation.