(In planning)
The Herbal Park project is the opening, management and operation of a botanical garden of useful plants. All the 1,430 plant species endemic to Sri Lanka will be cultivated here to conserve biodiversity.
In recent years, the development of plant-derived raw materials and products has attracted a lot of attention. The price of plants has risen due to increasing international demand. This has led to the encroachment into the jungles where scarce species grow, resulting in over-gathering and endangering Sri Lanka’s diverse ecosystem.
One of the reasons for these problems is that Sri Lanka has an unsustainable system of ‘collecting’ plants from the jungle and roadsides rather than ‘cultivating’ them. The problem is that the plants are delivered to the companies using the herbs and the pharmaceutical industry without any traceability of who collected the plants, where, how and under what conditions the plants were grown. Therefore, it is necessary to protect the rare herbal plants of Sri Lanka, to propagate the endangered plants and to protect the biodiversity in Sri Lanka.
The Herbal Park will be a centre for research and development for the conservation and sustainable use of herbal plants in collaboration with industry, academia, government and the Ministry of Agriculture, Health, and Ayurveda of Sri Lanka. The Herbal Park will have the following four functions: (1) a general garden for local and international tourists and a research garden for research samples from companies and university researchers; (2) a nursery for conservation and propagation; (3) a composting plant for making compost from food loss, food waste, or other organic waste; and (4) an educational facility for the transmission of Ayurvedic medicine.
MLL shall establish a platform that encourages research, for example, what herbal plants exist in Sri Lanka, how to utilise them in sustainable ways, and how to cultivate in organic ways. If you are interested in Sri Lankan plants and are willing to promote SDGs and CSR activities, we are looking forward to your participation.