From left: Hayleys Group Chairman and Chief Executive Mohan Pandithage, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Sri Lanka and Maldives Bonnie Horbach, Control Union Chairman for Asia region and Board Member Dirk Teichert and Hayleys Plantations Sector Managing Director Dr. Roshan Rajadurai receive regenagri certificate

• Kelani Valley Plantations pioneers intellectual tourism concept and establishment of on-estate biodiversity conservation centre 

Kelani Valley Plantations (KVPL), a Hayleys Plantations company, announced a historic achievement with its Triple Crown of World Firsts event.

This milestone centres around Halgolla Estate, which has become the first tea estate in the world to achieve the highly prestigious ‘regenagri’ certificate for Regenerative Agriculture certification.

The announcement was made during a special ceremony attended by a prestigious gathering of dignitaries, industry professionals, sustainability experts and academics, including Hayleys Chairman and Chief Executive Mohan Pandithage, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Sri Lanka and Maldives Bonnie Horbach, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands - Sri Lanka Senior Policy Advisor of Agriculture Nishan Dissanayake and Deputy Head of the Mission Embassy of Japan in Sri Lanka Katsuki Kotaro and Hayleys Plantations Sector Managing Director Dr. Roshan Rajadurai. 

regenagri CEO Franco Constantini, Control Union Chairman for the Asia region and Board Member Dirk Teichert, Managing Director Sri Lanka and Myanmar, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Country Representative Roshan Ranawake, Dr. Shamen Vidanage and other IUCN officials, senior academia and other industry representatives were present.

A panel discussion featuring senior academia, moderated by Programme Coordinator at Sri Lanka Country Office of IUCN - International Union for Conservation of Nature, Prof. Sandun Perera, discussed the significance of implementing Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Methods (OECMs) and illuminated valuable insights about Halgolla’s unique biodiversity heritage and pioneering conservation efforts. Their discussion spanned a variety of critical topics regarding the balance between revenue generation and conservation and how estates like Halgolla hold the key to unlocking a new paradigm in environmental conservation for Sri Lanka and the world. 
Halgolla’s ‘regenagri’ Certification was awarded after a stringent process, evaluating the estate’s approach to farming that has to adhere to a variety of factors, including preservation of soil health, encouraging biodiversity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering of CO2.