John Keells Foundation to reforest 20 hectares

World Environment Day 2021

John Keells Foundation – the CSR entity of the John Keells Group – entered into a three-year collaboration with Ruk Rakaganno – a non-governmental organisation engaged in the field of conservation and restoration of trees and forests – to reforest 20 hectares of Suduwalipotha Forest located in Kukulagema Beat, Kalawana

Range, Kalawana DS Division in Ratnapura District through Ecological Restoration.

The project falls within John Keells Foundation’s focus area of Environment which commits to minimizing the impact on the

environment while promoting the cause of environmental conservation and sustainability.

The project will focus on reforesting the land with indigenous trees and plants of the wet zone which can be established as a natural laboratory, providing a place for education and increasing public awareness on forest restoration and ecology with the output of 20 hectares of land to be planted with well-established native

vegetation, which will grow into a forest habitat similar to (that will mimic) the adjoining wet zone natural forest, Sinharaja Forest – the largest lowland rainforest in Sri Lanka and a biodiversity hotspot that is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The project which will be funded by John Keells Foundation and implemented by Ruk Rakaganno will involve

the planting of a minimum of 13,000 trees within the restored forest land during the first year commencing from 2021 and maintain the trees during the rest of the three years.