Sri Lanka Revolving Funds: Building community resilience

A case study on the implementation of a community-managed revolving fund in Nilgala, Sri Lanka, designed to reduce dependence on high-interest moneylenders and improve forest governance.

• Communities in Nilgala faced extreme poverty and financial instability due to their dependence on nature and restricted access to protected forests. To address this, they previously relied on moneylenders and microcredit programs that charged prohibitively high interest rates for health emergencies, house construction, and cultivation.
• CEJ/FoE Sri Lanka, with funding from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Sri Lanka, established a revolving fund for 10 villages in Nilgala. The fund provided 800,000 Sri Lankan Rupees (US$5,500) to over 500 beneficiary families through Nilgala Protection committees.
• The revolving fund allows local residents to borrow at a 1% interest rate under collective village control. This model has nearly doubled the original fund, reduced reliance on black market moneylenders, and improved both local income and forest management.

APA

admin (2015). Sri Lanka Revolving Funds: Building community resilience. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/sri-lanka-revolving-funds-building-community-resilience/

Chicago

admin. Sri Lanka Revolving Funds: Building community resilience. Friends of the Earth International, 2015. https://www.foei.org/sri-lanka-revolving-funds-building-community-resilience/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=admin |title=Sri Lanka Revolving Funds: Building community resilience |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=30 September 2015 |url=https://www.foei.org/sri-lanka-revolving-funds-building-community-resilience/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{admin2015sri, author = {admin}, title = {{Sri Lanka Revolving Funds: Building community resilience}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2015}, month = sep, url = {https://www.foei.org/sri-lanka-revolving-funds-building-community-resilience/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }