Biodiversity Sri Lanka in partnership with the Sri Lanka Forest Department, IUCN Sri Lanka and selected private sector partners, undertook a pilot project to establish a biodiversity baseline in a 10ha area of degraded rainforest, which was cleared for cultivation and subsequently abandoned, resulting in the colonization of it by the pioneer fern species Dicranopteris linearis, located in the Kanneliya Conservation Forest. The intension was to restore this area using principles of restoration ecology, to enhance its ecological functions, habitat quality, species diversity and its capacity to provide biodiversity and ecosystem services that is in close approximation to the surrounding wet lowland forest of which it was a part previously, before it was converted to its present state. The project aimed to develop a Biodiversity Credit Accrual System for Sri Lanka using the insights derived, with the objective of assigning a unit value for enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem services.