A small foundation with deep roots in two places.
We were established in England and Wales to do one thing well: channel lasting, community-rooted support to the Sri Lankans already protecting the island's extraordinary biodiversity.
Founded out of a field notebook, not a boardroom.
The Forrester Foundation began with a recurring entry in a UK ecologist's field notebook during the late 2000s: "the Sri Lankans doing this work are outstanding — and desperately under-resourced." Elephant monitors without torches. Turtle hatchery volunteers paying for their own petrol. Rainforest buffer planters unable to afford saplings after a failed monsoon.
In 2010 a small group of UK and Sri Lankan supporters formally registered the charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (No. 1133415). The brief was unusually narrow for a new organisation: no head office, no salaried staff, and no UK-led projects. Every pound would move to named Sri Lankan field partners, against named work, with named outcomes.
That's still how we operate fifteen years on. Trustees are volunteers. Admin is done at kitchen tables. In the most recent financial year our paid staff costs were zero — an unusual figure in UK charity accounts, and one we plan to keep.
A two-country charity with one budget line: Sri Lanka.
We are registered and governed in the UK, but every programme, every pound of spend and every outcome we report is in Sri Lanka.
Governance & fundraising
Five trustees in the UK oversee strategy, compliance and fundraising. We file annual returns with the Charity Commission and publish a public annual report each October.
Field partners in Sri Lanka
Three long-term Sri Lankan partner organisations — a community ranger collective, a marine turtle trust, and a rainforest-fringe farming co-operative — deliver the work on the ground.
Shared accountability
Every grant we make is tied to quarterly field reports with photographs, GPS points and expenditure ledgers. Nothing is disbursed without them.
What we hold to, even when it costs us.
Integrity first
We'd rather run a smaller programme we can fully account for than a large one we can't.
Sri Lankan-led
Our role is to back Sri Lankan expertise, not to import UK assumptions into a landscape we don't live in.
Habitat over heroics
Charismatic species matter, but long-term recovery happens at the watershed and corridor scale.
Open data
Sightings, patrol logs and reforestation plots are shared with Sri Lankan universities and sister groups.
The people who steer the charity.
Dr Rowena Forrester
Ecologist with twenty years of fieldwork in South and Southeast Asia. Leads the Foundation's strategy and partner relationships.
Priyantha de Silva
Former Sri Lankan Forest Department officer. Co-ordinates field partners in Ruhuna and the southern coastal zone.
Helen Adebayo
Chartered accountant. Volunteers her time to keep our books clean and our Charity Commission filings faultless.
James Thornley
Retired headteacher. Oversees the Foundation's safeguarding policy and volunteer screening.
Anuradha Kuruppu
Marine biologist based partly in Tangalle. Leads our open-data commitments with Sri Lankan universities.
Margaret Ling
Long-standing supporter from the UK side. Runs our donor relationships and community fundraising events.
Our books, our filings, our field reports — all in public view.
We publish a short, readable annual report each October alongside our statutory filing with the Charity Commission. Field-partner reports are summarised in each edition; full versions are available on request.
Registration details
Charity name: The Forrester Foundation Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society
Charity Commission No.: 1133415
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
Financial year end: 30 September
Governance document: Constitution of an unincorporated charitable association, adopted 2010, last amended 2022.
Full governing document available from the Charity Commission register.