History
The Neo Synthesis Research Centre (NSRC) was founded in 1982. We were a group of friends concerned about the institutional approach to forest management.
At that time, the Sri Lanka Forest Department’s focus, guided by international funding, was on establishing monoculture plantations of exotic tree species such as Pinus and Eucalyptus to afforest abandoned government owned lands in the highlands.
From our point of view these monocultures were ecological deserts compared to Sri Lanka’s species-rich tropical forests. Meanwhile farmers in neighboring villages had been growing species diverse, forest-like, home gardens on private lands for many generations.
There was a significant disconnect between the forest department models for land management and local knowledge and lived experience with agroforestry on the land that provided a strong basis for both biodiversity conservation and sustainable human livelihoods. We drew inspiration from farmers and from Upali Senanayake’s¹ example of working with communities to address change locally.
1982 -1997, Research in the Central Highlands
In 1982 Dr. Ranil Senanayake, a Sri Lankan ecologist and Dr. Jerry Moles, an American anthropologist/ecologist started a research station on Dr. Senanayake’s 14-acre tea estate at Mirahawatta in the Uva Basin. For the next 15 years, Senanayake and Moles, along with several other researchers, graduate students and interns including Yvonne Everett carried out:
➤ Botanical research – inventories of remnant forest patches in the Uva Basin and beyond, seed collecting and germination of native forest plant species (e.g., trees, shrubs, lianas, ferns); establishment of an arboretum of species.
➤ Wildlife research – faunal surveys especially of birds, frogs, and butterflies in the surrounding wild and managed landscapes.
➤ Agricultural and agroforestry research in managed agricultural lands used to grow tea, mixed species forest gardens, paddy, and vegetable crops.
➤ Interviews and mapping with village farmers exploring their knowledge of land management, farming practices, home gardens and agroforestry systems.
➤ Development of the analog forestry theory which calls for patterning agroforestry enrichment and livelihood enhancement on the structure and ecological function of natural forests for watershed rehabilitation and biodiversity conservation.
➤ Policy and publicity work to promote NSRCs approaches to forest and biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, and agroforestry.
1998 to 2004, Extending NSRC’s methods to farmers
NSRC developed the analog forestry methodology as an applied praxis for forest and watershed rehabilitation, agroforestry, and regenerative agriculture extension to farmers. Staff led by Executive Director, Dr. Kamal Melvani worked on projects in several agroecological zones in Sri Lanka that had varying topography, elevation, soils, rainfall, and biodiversity.
Their first major project involved 525 farmers that was undertaken in collaboration with partner organisations, including the Future in our Hands Foundation, National Forum for Peoples Organization, Nature Conservation Group, and Panadura Field Study and Research Centre. Several other smaller projects followed, of which some have been monitored over decades of time.
Our measures of success have always been the elimination of erosion, improvements in soil and water quality and availability, healthy diets and greater food security, adequate incomes to meet household needs for farmers, and protection of native biodiversity. Coupled with these measures we work towards increasing the capacity of communities to empower themselves to meet shared needs. With a ‘holistic approach, NSRC addresses all of these goals in a stepwise progression.
NSRC’s evolution across time focused on different priorities:
2004 to 2012, Developing new research stations and expanding extension.
In 2004, the ownership of the land on which we had developed our research station at Mirahawatta in the Uva Basin was transferred and we sought a new home. At this time Dr. Melvani continued as Executive Director of NSRC with Dr. Jerry Moles as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
The Lemastota Research Station, a 15-acre former tea estate in the Intermediate Zone of the highlands was acquired in 2004.
In the same year, the landowner of a former coconut plantation in the Intermediate Zone of the West Coast agreed to host our Serukele research station.
Many watershed rehabilitation and agroforestry extension projects were initiated at this time, including Maragalakanda, Hulu Ganga, and Kalpitiya.
In 2005, NSRC began working on the East Coast in Kalmunai to assist in relief and recovery in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Besides working with Kalmunai residents to distribute emergency water and food and to rebuild homes, NSRC focused on home garden development for food security. Work on the coastal forest bioshield started in 2005 that was implemented and managed by community members mobilised into 34 local groups.
NSRC extended its outreach programmes to Alayadivembu along the East Coast and inland to Siyambalanduwa in 2011. The work undertaken here and in other areas of Sri Lanka’s dry agroecological zone were described in the Handbook for Regenerative Agriculture published in Sinhala, Tamil, and English, and distributed to thousands of Sri Lankan farmers associated with the community groups established by the Irrigation Department and Sri Lanka’s National Water Supply and Drainage Board.
2013 to 2025, Field Research and extension
Dr. Melvani’s dissertation research on forest gardens and farmer livelihoods in the Intermediate Zone of Sri Lanka at Charles Darwin University, Australia was completed in 2019. Several published journal articles from this research can be accessed from the Publications page of this website.
NSRC Activities in Sri Lanka slowed due to travel restrictions under the COVID pandemic and are now underway again.
Currently NSRC’s work at Serukele includes establishing a demonstration model for climate change adaptation. The focus at Lemastota is biological mitigation of landslides. The demonstration model for bioremediation of ground water at Kalpitiya aims to distribute potable water to 600 families in Nawakkaduwa village has been revived. Currently, the international NGO World Vision has commissioned NSRC to identify interventions that can improve water yields and quality in seven sub catchments located in the cloud forest region in the Hatton area.
¹Upali Senanayake led the National Heritage Trust in Sri Lanka which in the early 1960s contributed to increasing national paddy yields by incorporating school children to participate in the weeding component of paddy production.