Current and future governments of Sri Lanka face several significant challenges, e.g., economic recovery beyond the debt crisis, facilitating the creation of sustainable livelihoods and green jobs, restructuring the public sector, and improving governance and accountability. It may seem that adding to that list further burdens a government already facing a daunting task. Yet, the “environment” is more than just nature, animals or forests - the physical world around us affects every aspect of our social, economic and political lives, as citizens and as human beings, and is vital for economic recovery and continued economic development.

This document aims to show the links between environmental health the development, and strategic policy decisions can have a highly positive–and essential–impacts on both Sri Lanka’s social and economic situation in the short-, medium-, and long-term as well as political wins and concrete policy achievements for politicians and political parties that enable good and stable governance, by adopting this broader strategic view of the environment into their policies and actions.

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