Inspired Individuals

Damitha Rajapakse is a committed Christian who established the Biodiversity Lifeskills Foundation, a conservation charity in Gampaha, Sri Lanka (20km from Colombo). He used to work for a pharmaceutical company and brings this knowledge to the project.

It is obvious that Damitha is a social innovator. The Biodiversity Lifeskills Foundation is the second innovative solution developed by him. In 1993 he established the Integrated Livestock Development Association that helps to integrate organic farming concepts among rural churches.

Modern pharmaceuticals are expensive, yet there are often are no improvements upon traditional remedies. Nonetheless, the traditional remedies are under threat in two ways:

1. Many of the plants from which these remedies are based are becoming extinct;
2. The indigenous knowledge of the use of these remedies is being lost.

In the past the Sri Lankan traditional knowledge was kept alive by Buddhist Monks, however, today the monastic gardens have gone and many of the medicinal plants are destroyed as “weeds”.

While there are a number of global reports calling for the protection of biodiversity, very little is done for practical conservation.

Damitha seeks to preserve endangered species of medicinal, food and timber trees, as well as disseminate the indigenous knowledge of their uses for the benefit of the poor. He organises the following activities:

• Collecting, planting and propagating traditional medicines in an Arboretum,
• Planting out a selected 25 species in Church gardens where they can be cared for in the Sunday Schools, where Children are taught Creation Care, and
• Replanting from Church gardens into family homes, where they can be of use for fruit, timber and common remedies for sickness.

Thus, Damitha seeks to 'repair the earth' while providing poor families with the resources which the Earth offers, such as food and medicinal plants.

Having established the Arboretum with over 2000 species and having tested the concept with his own local church, Damitha is now engaging other churches in the project and is planning to develop a small Elderly home on the arboretum, which would:

• Provide help for the arboretum in 'horticultural therapy' that would also be good for the retirees who live there, and a chance for them to teach children. It is the older generation who hold the traditional knowledge that is vital to the success of this initiative;
• Provide an income so that the whole project is self-sustaining.