Addressing conservation challenges through female entrepreneurship: Paradigm shift

WNPS PLANT, Otter Fonds from Netherland and the Lanka Environment Fund (LEF) have joined hands to empower female entrepreneurs to commence their own forest plant nurseries through a powerful groundbreaking initiative.

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The awarding was held with the recipients, the WNPS and PLANT teams, along with the donor representatives, recently. The WNPS is once again pioneered a fresh thought process by making major infusions into Community aspects and entrepreneurship as a conservation bridge.

With a vision to develop forest corridors and unify fragmented forests through private sector engagement, the WNPS set up Preserving Land and Nature (Guarantee) Ltd., (PLANT) a few years ago. The initiative gained rapid momentum but soon hit a massive roadblock. The long forest corridors being created needed way more montane plants than were available. Species are carefully selected and with no precedence of large-scale reforesting in the hills, the existing few nurseries were struggling. The slow growth rate of montane plants provided yet another challenge. The leadership went for a bold plan for which it sought willing donors.

The idea was multidimensional: seek out female talent who would be passionate about conservation, fund them and train them extensively in forest nursery management and entrepreneurship, ensure that the returns would be faster and provide a safety net by purchasing the output. The projects will accelerate several successful ventures which would also bring a financial infusion into multiple families.