Sri Lanka has been endorsed for a project under the Kunming Biodiversity Fund (KBF), positioning the country among the first globally to move into large-scale implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This milestone marks a significant step in translating global biodiversity commitments into coordinated national action.
The KBF project proposal was formally signed by Mr. K.R. Uduwawala, Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, and Mr. Vimlendra Sharan, FAO Representative for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, at the Ministry of Environment. This underscores strong national leadership and international partnership. The proposal is entirely homegrown, developed through close collaboration between the Ministry of Environment and national experts, ensuring that global commitments are firmly grounded in Sri Lanka’s national priorities and realities.
Invasive alien species represent a critical and growing threat to Sri Lanka’s biodiversity, ecosystems, agriculture, and livelihoods. Addressing this challenge requires urgent, coordinated, and system-wide national action. The KBF-supported project responds directly to this need, marking a transformative shift from fragmented, project-based interventions to a unified national biosecurity system. The initiative will institutionalize prevention, early detection, rapid response, and long-term management of invasive species across the country.
Through the project, led by the Ministry of Environment and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Sri Lanka will strengthen policies, legislation, and institutional coordination related to invasive species management. Key interventions include updating the national priority invasive species list for the first time since 2015, establishing a national digital monitoring system, and enhancing border controls through improved tools and enforcement capacity.
Community-based ecosystem restoration and inclusive livelihoods are central to the project’s approach. Activities will include site-specific eradication efforts, post-eradication monitoring, and innovative ‘eradication-through-utilization’ models that generate economic opportunities for women, youth, and vulnerable groups while restoring ecosystems.
The Kunming Biodiversity Fund provides catalytic international financing that enables Sri Lanka to scale up biodiversity action, address long-standing investment gaps in invasive species management, and leverage FAO’s technical support. This support is designed to deliver system-level, long-term transformation rather than short-term project outcomes and offers a model for translating biodiversity ambitions into concrete, sustained national action.
Present at the signing ceremony at the Ministry of Environment were Mr. Vimlendra Sharan, FAO Representative for Sri Lanka and the Maldives; Mr. K.R. Uduwawala, Secretary of the Ministry of Environment; Mrs. Dakshini Perera, Environment and Climate Change Specialist, FAO Sri Lanka; Mr. Nalin Munasinghe, Assistant FAO Representative (Programme); Mrs. W.G. Kumaragama, Additional Secretary (Environment Projects & Education Training), Ministry of Environment; Dr. A.M.A.S. Attanayake, Director (Biodiversity Division), Ministry of Environment; and Mrs. Kulani H.W. Karunarathne, Director (International Relations), Ministry of Environment.
