Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne has played a pivotal role in branding Sri Lanka for its wildlife using a blend of writing, photography, business acumen, media skills and science. He has explained that the islands combination of easy to see charismatic large land mammals, outstanding whale watching and disproportionate species richness on land and sea, compactness and tourism infrastructure, gives it a strong claim to be the best all-round wildlife destination for commercial wildlife tourism. This claim was preceded by the claim that for commercial wildlife tourism, the island was the best for big game safaris outside Africa. Gehan has played a key role in the research and development of many of the building blocks for these claims
