Sri Lanka Postgraduate Fellowship
The Sri Lanka Program for Forest Conservation (SLPFC) is devoted to research, education and extension of tropical forest conservation in Sinharaja, Southwest of Sri Lanka. It has several endowed programs that enable faculty, doctoral, masters and undergraduate students from the Universities of Sri Jayewardenepura, Peradeniya, Uva Wellassa and Yale (USA) to study tropical forest conservation at the SLPFC field station located in the village of Pitekele and the adjacent Sinharaja MAB World Heritage Forest.
The goal of the postgraduate fellowship at Yale is to provide practical and professional development experience in tropical forest conservation. Fellows gain experience working with villagers and collaborating with The Sri Lanka Program for Forest Conservation (SLPFC). Fellows are mentored by villagers who have developed and managed tree gardens on their properties for over 1000 years. Fellows will learn the traditional propagation and uses of over 500 trees, shrubs and herbs grown in gardens for foods, medicines, spices, and building materials. Their mentors are the villagers who work with them. Fellows learn tropical taxonomy, nursery propagation and work in collaboration with the NGO to develop a demonstration traditional tree garden designed to serve as a living and electronic demonstration for university curricula and practitioner extension; with downloadable information from the NGO’s website on the cultural, ecological and economic diversity of plants cultivated in traditional gardens in Sri Lanka. For a personal account from past postgraduate fellows, visit: