Living Heritage has recently established a permanent office for volunteer workers in the village of Koslanda in Badulla District. The vision of this project is to revitalise the lapsed concept of the Sustainable Development Zone, a government backed project covering seven villages within a 10 km square area (population 7,618), with the aim of creating an region that is environmentally pure, economically secure and acts as a leading example of sustainable rural development. Within this area we will strive to preserve the lifestyle, agrarian practices, traditions and values of a fast disappearing way of life

We have entered into a partnership with the Koslanda Rural Knowledge Centre or Nanasala and work together as a mutually supportive team on a number of local initiatives.

Goals of the project

• To use the latest GPS technology to map the resources within the Sustainable Development Zone. This will be the first project of its kind by a Sri Lankan NGO and provide a huge wealth of information to support our work and to be owned by the community.
• To gradually cleanse the land through initiatives encouraging farmers to farm organically, and educational programmes encouraging better forms of rubbish disposal and public cleanliness habits.
• To halt deforestation within the SDZ and replace lost rainforest. This will be done through replanting programmes and by encouraging traditional forms of agriculture which require less paddy.
• To encourage the growing of rice, vegetables and herbs that are on the verge of extinction.
• To provide knowledge to the farmers in how to improve the quality of their produce and to farm more efficiently
• To source export markets that will leverage more value from the produce.
• To demonstrate how information computer technology can be used to improve business efficiency, as an information resource and how it is relevant to every day life even in a remote location such as Koslanda.
• To create markets for products derived from renewable natural resources.
• To develop a definitive legal SDZ at a governmental level by which all trading and marketing operations are governed by rules of sustainability, environmental preservation and fair trade.

LHT Koslanda has a range of initiatives in an early stage of development ranging from women’s handicraft projects to spices for export programmes.

LHT’s corporate affiliate Living Heritage Reserves, a sustainable tourism initiative is also based in the area and will form a symbiotic relationship with LHT Koslanda by purchasing goods produced through LHT’s programmes and giving part of its profit to support our overheads.