Since its founding in 1981 to challenge unchecked environmental destruction, the Environmental Foundation Limited (EFL) has become one of Sri Lanka’s most influential environmental organisations. Its work is built on a unique model that combines scientific inquiry with legal advocacy, ensuring that environmental protection in Sri Lanka is grounded in evidence, guided by the law, and driven by public interest.

EFL’s scientific work spans biodiversity assessments, ecological surveys, marine and terrestrial mapping, and the development of evidence-based conservation tools. These research efforts inform national policy, strengthen environmental governance, and provide the technical foundation for conservation planning and sustainable resource management. Whether mapping the country’s Marine Protected Area network, analysing wildlife trafficking patterns, or identifying critical ecosystems for long-term protection, EFL’s scientific teams generate the data necessary for effective environmental decisions.

Parallel to this, EFL’s legal arm plays a vital role in defending Sri Lanka’s environment through litigation, policy intervention, and legal reform. EFL has pioneered public interest environmental litigation in Sri Lanka, challenging unlawful developments, preventing habitat destruction, strengthening protected area governance, and holding state institutions accountable to the law. Its legal interventions have safeguarded forests, wetlands, rivers, coastal ecosystems, and endangered species for over four decades.

Together, EFL’s scientific and legal work form a powerful, integrated approach to environmental protection, one that continues to uphold the organisation’s founding mission: justice for nature and the preservation of Sri Lanka’s natural heritage for generations to come.

Read about EFL’s ongoing legal cases and significant judgments (link to Litigation – Ongoing cases/Significant judgements)

Read EFL comments on EIA’s and National Policies (link to Environmental Safeguards – Environment Impact Assessments (EIA),  Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA), national policies, acts and regulations, management plans etc. as part of its work programme etc.