Gujarat University & CEE launch:
        Management Education Centre
        on Climate Change (MEC-CC)

Lighting the way for Climate Change education. L-R: Mr. Kartikeya Sarabhai, Dr. Parimal Trivedi, Mr. John McCarthy, and Dr. Tim Flannery

Dr. Tim Flannery, internationally acclaimed Australian environmentalist launched MEC-CC on 2 February 2009 at Gujarat University (GU). The Centre is a collaborative initiative of GU & CEE. The event received an overwhelming response from faculty members and students. Dr. Parimal Trivedi, Vice Chancellor, GU in his speech briefed about objective of the Centre and various courses proposed for the next academic year. He urged students to take this opportunity and become green managers for the society.

Mr. John McCarthy, Australian High Commissioner to India appreciated the step taken by both the institutes. In his lecture Dr. Flannery addressed issues related to scientific aspects of climate change, its impacts and actions required to tackle climate change issues. The lecture was followed by a lively question�answer session. More

CEE Canada!

CEE Canada was formally registered on 11 February 2009 at Ontario, Canada. CEE Canada becomes the third international affiliation of CEE
India after Australia and Sri Lanka. The Founding Directors of CEE Canada are Dr. Charles Hopkins (Chair, Reorienting Teacher Education, York University), Dr. David V. J. Bell (Professor Emeritus, Senior Scholar and Former Dean, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University), and Mr. Tom Tamblyn (Chair, Dearness Environmental Society). Brijpal Patel, Programme Coordinator, CEE will be Officer-in-charge of CEE Canada office.

The major thrust areas identified by the Board for CEE Canada are:


� Building Bridges � reaching out to the South Asians and New Canadians for an inclusive dialogue and strategy for Education for Sustainable Development
� Global Partnerships for Sustainable Future
� Building on local Ontario and Canadian initiatives
� Research and material development consultancy, including adaptation of existing material in diverse cultural, geographical and social context.


Contact: [email protected]

  Showcasing community approaches to sustainable actions

Ms. Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson of GEF visited the stall set up by Small Grants Programme (SGP) India, Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) Government of India (GOI). CEE, facilitated the exhibition stall at Delhi Summit for Sustainable Development (DSDS) organised by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), as the National Host Institute for SGP with Nayanika Singh.

Ms. Barbut and Mr. Namo Narayan Meena, Minister of Environment & Forests, expressed their appreciation at the display of the SGP partners and Self Help Groups and their full support for SGP activities.

Park Education Package

A school education package on Dudhwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh was launched by students of a school in Dudhwa on the occasion of World Wetlands Day. The event, organised in an interior school of Tharu habitation located in buffer zone of Dudhwa National Park, had around 250 students of two schools taking part in a number of activities.

CEE is working in Dudhwa on a community based project on Natural Resource Management for biodiversity conservation. School package was developed by CEE as part of its school initiative in Dudhwa.

School package includes a poster on Dudhwa covering background information, importance, threats and ways of conservation; and a booklet for teachers to help them in conducting educational activities on biodiversity conservation.

JOL activities @ www.greenteacher.org

Around 60 activities from the Joy of Learning series have been added to the Green Teacher Website www.greenteacher.org. Local language text has been enabled and users can directly download Unicode font and enter text into Green Teacher (activities, projects, discussion forum inputs, etc) in Indian languages. The font to be used is a phonetic one, and it is simple to use. Local language text will be regularly carried on the website.

GIS in ESD

A Geographical Information System (GIS) is a database system with specific capabilities for spatially referenced data. CEE has formed a GIS Cell with the motive to enable improved education and communication. GIS Cell will facilitate several ESD efforts like complex analysis, simple representation, networking, better reliability and accuracy.

CEE�s GIS Cell aims to become an important tool for information dissemination, education and research programmes related to different aspects of work like monitoring status quo; projecting; modeling, etc. GIS, as an interoperable technology, sets a stage for collaborative working between several project teams working at varied locations. It allows users to share information leading to efficient working and planning.

 A Green Yatra



6,500 eco clubs under the NGC programme in
Gujarat celebrated their annual event with a Prakriti Yatra (Nature Tour). Buses with students, teachers, district coordinators and master trainers took off from each of the five zones to congregate at an eco fair at Junagadh at the foot of the famous Girnar Mountain.

The Yatra and event provided opportunity for much sharing, learning, and infused fresh enthusiasm and energy to carry forward the eco club activities.
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World Wetlands Day celebrated in Kashmir

World Wetlands Day 2009 was celebrated in a remote hilly village Salamabad in Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir. A day long awareness programme attended by around 110 students, teachers and parents was held at Government Primary School Salamabad, Uri. Damaged in 2005 earthquake, this school has been reconstructed as a part of CEE�s rehabilitation programme.

Participants were apprised of history and importance of World Wetlands Day and the Ramsar Convention. Degradation of local wetlands was highlighted while discussing this year�s theme �Wetland and River Basin Management�. According to the villagers, two third of Kashmir�s wetlands have been vanished during past 50 years. Jehlem, the main river in Baramulla district is plagued by massive silting and encroachment. High Altitude Wetlands are exposed to added threats due to the climate change impact. Children talked about wetlands during a 3 minute speech competition. They also participated in wetlands quiz and expressed their creativity on importance of wetlands in their life through a painting competition.

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