FWC was established in February 1996 to facilitate and encourage the society in Sri Lanka to conserve biodiversity and related ecosystem services for human well-being, and ensure that natural-resources dependant livelihoods are ecologically sustainable and socially equitable. The first Director General Mr. Laxman Perera guided the voluntary director board and the small staff which FWC consisted at the establishment, to develop and implement ventures that deal with many issues related to biodiversity depletion, ecosystem degradation and related social and economic implications.

FWC conducts programmes collaboratively with the Government and Private organizations to achieve success and to gain more cooperation of general public to conserve our priceless environment. Since its establishment, FWC has conducted many projects and programmes dealing with various environmental issues. Following are some of the past milestone projects handled by FWC.

 

Presently, FWC is making a valuable contribution to the overall biodiversity conservation of Sri Lanka under the guidance of the Director General, Prof. Tissa R. Herath The voluntary director board and the considerable number of staff plan and execute ecosystem management projects, biodiversity conservation projects, projects to address land degradation and various awareness and environmental cleanup programmes with the participation of school children and local communities.

The Asian ecosystems support more than half of the world's population, and biodiversity specially the Sri Lanka one of the biodiversity hotspot in Asia. But there are far from being managed in a sustainable or an equitable manner every where in the region. The diversity, integrity and productivity of many key ecosystems have been eroded significantly, and serious environmental problems persist. Ensuring ecosystem health and conserving natural resources is a necessity for economic development if Sri Lanka is to prosper in to the 21 st country.

Federation of Wildlife conservation works to identify, develop and implement new means of income generation for poor farmers living in areas of high conservation value. FWC identifies bio products, implements technology to develop their sustainable use and builds the infrastructure needed to carry products to market. FWC is committed to this work because it believes long-term solutions to maintaining native habitats will only be achieved if people living near those sites have sustained good health and vested interest in protecting them.

We work with local communities, government agencies and private organizations to conserve Sri Lanka's biodiversity in a practical, apolitical and scientific way and achieved an excellent growth within the last 10 years, and our organization always searches for win-win situations where both the endangered ecosystem is protected and the dependant community receives some tangible benefits.