Wildlife and Nature Protection Society

Description

The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society, WNPS, is Sri Lanka’s oldest conservation organization and the third oldest in the world. It was founded in 1894 in Colombo as the Ceylon Game Protection Society and has been renamed several times as its focus widened from game hunting to wider conservation. Today it works to conserve Sri Lanka’s flora and fauna by uniting scientists, policymakers, activists, youth and nature lovers.

The society helped establish the Yala and Wilpattu sanctuaries, later declared national parks, and pushed for the law that became the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance. It was instrumental in setting up Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation, became the first non-governmental organization in the country incorporated by an Act of Parliament, and was the first Sri Lankan NGO admitted to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

WNPS runs a monthly public lecture series, a youth wing and school nature clubs, and publishes Loris, the oldest wildlife journal in Sri Lanka. Its conservation work covers human-elephant coexistence, leopard research and training, and marine conservation including protection of shipwrecks and thresher sharks. Together with the Environmental Foundation Limited and other groups, it has litigated to stop illegal clearing and biofuel projects inside national parks.