Aims & Objectives

The primary aim of our project is to develop the capacity of the three partner institutions to undertake the research and training activities required to understand and reverse the damaging environmental and social impacts of ecosystem degradation resulting from anthropogenic activities in Sri Lanka. Achieving this will involve targeting a range of specific training, scientific and dissemination objectives.

Human Resource Development objectives : To develop human resource capacity for research on restoration of degraded tropical lands in Sri Lanka and the EU. Our specific objective is to develop and deliver an integrated training programme for postgraduate students, and junior and senior faculty of one Sri Lankan and two EU institutions with the following elements:

Scientific objectives : For sites in the Upper Mahaweli catchment of Sri Lanka, to understand (a) the mechanisms that constrain successional development of vegetation on degraded Imperata grasslands, (b) the processes that constrain conversion of unproductive Pinus plantations into managed ecosystems with greater social, economic and conservation value, and (c) the patterns of resource use and socially acceptable methodologies for uptake of restoration techniques by communities living adjacent to degraded grassland and Pinus plantations.

Dissemination objectives : To develop a communications strategy that will involve dissemination of knowledge and experience of ecological restoration techniques to local communities, undergraduates and postgraduates in the three partner institutions, as well as the wider national and international academic communities. 

University of Aberdeen, UK | University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

University of BOKU, Vienna (Austria) | Asia Link