Hemantha WITHANAGE

Hemantha Withanage is the chair of Friends of the Earth International and the Senior Advisor of the Centre for Environmental Justice based in Sri Lanka. Hemantha is a science graduate from the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka, Hemantha joined the environmental justice movement in 1990 as an environmental officer for the Environmental Foundation Ltd. In 2004, he co-founded the Centre for Environmental Justice – the most visible environmental organisation in Sri Lanka today. From 2005-2008, Hemantha was Executive Director of the Philippines based NGO Forum on ADB, a network of civil society organisations monitoring the Asian Development Bank – for which he has also been the elected International Convenor a number of times. Hemantha has held leadership positions in a number of other regional and international networks and is a leading environmental activist in the Asia Pacific region. He is also an advocator on Environmental Impact Assessment and climate justice.  Centre for Environmental Justice is accredited to the UNCCD since 2018 and to the UNFCCC since 2009.