Celebrating Van-Mahotsav
CEE MP State Office, Joseph Kujur, Programme Officer and Mr. Dilip Chakravarty, Project Officer, in collaboration with Archaeological Survey of India, Bhopal Circle organized a one week “Van Mahotsav” programme.
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NGC Schools participated enthusiastically in the week long celebration |
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Local administration and NGC schools, Government officials, NGOs, Associations and general groups participated in the week-long Van Mahotsav Paryavaran Mitra Programme during which, more than 1000 saplings were planted at the Adamgarh pre-historic Rock Shelter, Hosangabad.
The programme was inaugurated by planting of a sapling by Mr. R.K. Dabey, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests , Madhya Pradesh. Other officials present were Chief Conservator of Forests, Hosangabad, DFO, Hosangabad, Mr. N. Taher, Superintending Archaeologist , ASI Bhopal.
The Lions Club, BJP and Congress Youth Associations, Hosangabad also joined hands during the programme. |
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Workshops on Waste & Plastics
CEE Delhi in partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi conducted a series of workshops on Waste & Plastics at 8 Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) of Delhi in the month of July 2011. Two more such workshops are scheduled in August. The session on Waste & Plastics was conducted after the opening session on Swiss Culture conducted by Ms. Sarah Berry (Officer - Projects, Events and Education, Embassy of Switzerland). The workshops included interactive sessions on waste management and the use of plastics. Games and activities as well as screening of short film on waste management gave children a better understanding of the topic. They also saw a video on how the recycling of wastes is done in Switzerland. The children were oriented to the process of Handmade Paper Recycling by the CEE team. The children themselves tried their hand at paper recycling.
The last workshop for the KV, Hindan was held at the premises of Embassy of Switzerland on 28July. It was attended by H.E. Philippe Welti (Ambassador of Switzerland to India), Mr. Martin Strub (Minister & Deputy Head of Mission), Mr. Siamak Rouhani (Counsellor – Eco. & Commercial Affairs), and
Mr. P S Sodhi (National Coordinator – GEF UNDP SGP CEE).
The CEE team facilitating the workshop included
Ms. Chetali Kapoor, Mr. Bibhu Prasad Tripathy and
Ms. Swati Nuka.
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Each of the workshops had 55 participant students from class 8 of the respective Kendria Vidyala |
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Tiger Conservation Plan, Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Chikmagalur
CEE South has compiled a Tiger Conservation Plan,(TCP) 2011 – 2021, for Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Karnataka Forest Department. The plan includes a management strategy for next 10 years, aiming at conservation of critical tiger habitat and improving viable population of tigers. The TCP starts with a description of the natural wealth of Bhadra Tiger Reserve, followed by a brief history of the area, vision, objectives, goals and management strategies with particular reference to forest fire prevention, weed eradication, wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, eco-developments and environmental education.
This plan has been submitted to the Forest Department.
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Kemmanagundi Medicinal Plant Conservation Area booklets released
Kemmannugundi is one of the hill stations surrounded with Shola forest in the Western Ghats. It is also known for its great diversity of Medicinal plants. This area has been designated as a Medicinal Plant Conservation Area (MPCA) with an objective to conserve medicinal plants in their natural habitat (in-situ) and preserve their gene pool. There are 13 such MPCAs in Karnataka.
This booklet contains detailed information about the Faunal diversity, Floral diversity, threats, management practices, list of medicinal plants found at MPCA, their uses, images, etc.
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The booklets have been developed by CEE South Outdoor Education team |
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Ganges River Dolphin Conservation Education Programme
CEE North, as part of its Ganges River Dolphin Conservation Education programme organized a three day national-level workshop for partner NGOs from 4 states viz. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. The residential training-cum- orientation workshop was organized in joint collaboration with Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development (IESD), Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi from 28-30 July 2011. It was inaugurated by Prof. D.P Singh, Vice Chancellor, BHU and saw participation of more than 70 people as distinguished guests, environmental educators, students, and representatives of partner NGOs.
In his inaugural address, Prof. Singh shared his experience of past association with CEE where “Guide to Green Citizenship’ manual was developed and extensively used. He mentioned that with establishment of India’s first ESD institute, they will look forward to closer association with CEE which is the nodal agency for DESD in the country.
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Ganga River Dolphin |
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The workshop was designed to develop strategies and build capacities of the partner NGOs to implement the conservation programme in their respective school clusters. NGOs will be forming clusters of 25 schools along Ganga and Brahmputra river basins and their tributaries, thus reaching out to around 500 schools. Teachers of these schools will be trained to take up the yearlong activities related to Ganga River Dolphin and its conservation.
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A poster developed by CEE as part of its Dolphin conservation initiative was released by Prof. D.P Singh. |
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Plantation Begins to Create Children Forest
With onset of monsoon, CEE North, under its Children Forest Programme (CFP) initiated the plantation activity in the first batch of 35 schools. The first plantation ceremony was held on the occasion of Guru Purnima on 15 July, 2011. The District Inspector of Schools, was the chief guest of the ceremony, Students and teachers who planted the saplings also carried out tagging of their respective saplings by writing their name, and the name of the plant sapling. They then tied this to the sapling with a raksha sootra (pious thread, indicating a strong relationship between the students and their planted sapling).
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| The students pledge to look after the saplings that they plant. |
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During the plantation activity, students are also encouraged to plant and care for more and more trees, for their own generation and for coming generations.Such plantation activity has been completed in 9 schools so far where on an average 100- 120 saplings of around 20-22 indigenous plant species have been planted by students. 10 plant saplings are also distributed among the students in school for community plantation. Each school receives a set of equipments and tools required for plantation and its care.
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Showcase Workshop and the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Regional Meeting for Rio +20
A two day Showcase Workshop on Stakeholder Empowerment and Participation was organized by UNEP-APFED (Asia Pacific Forum for Environment and Development) during 25-26 May 2011 in Beijing. The Workshop was organized by APFED in partnership with Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences (CSES).
The workshop focused on analysing and sharing good practices and innovative activities supported under the APFED Award and Showcase Programme for promoting sharing of polices and actions in the Region to achieve sustainable development and generate tangible impacts.
Ms. Shefali Atrey, Programme Officer, GIS Cell, CEE presented CEE’s experiences of the project ‘SamVednaa: An initiative towards building Model Green Colleges’,the project is supported by UNEP-APFED. CEE’s presentation highlighted communication methodology, learnings and challenges of empowering youth as change agents for sustainable development.
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The 2- day workshop was followed by a regional meeting of the various organizations present to discuss Rio+20.preparations. |
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Documentaries on Total Sanitation Campaign in (TSC) Dakshina Kannada
Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) is a comprehensive programme to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with the broader goal to eradicate the practice of open defecation. The TSC was launched in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, on 2 October, 2005, and since then, Dakshina Kannada has made tremendous efforts to achieve “Open Defecation-free Status”.
CEE South’s Outdoor Education team has developed two short documentaries pertaining to TSC. These are 1) Journey of TSC in Dakshina Kannada and 2) Three inspiring models adopted to implement this campaign. A brief report on the TSC that led Dakshina Kannada district to get “Open Defecation - free” Status; a booklet showcasing some inspiring case studies, and brochures were also developed.
The documentaries and the publications were released by Hon’ble Minister of Environment and Ports, Karnataka, Mr. Krishna Palemar in Mangalore. This function was also attended by Smt. K.T. Shilaja Bhatt, the President of Zilla Panchayat, Dakshina Kannada district.
The short film on the Journey of TSC in Dakshina Kannada district was also screened in Vidhana Soudha, for the Hon’ble Chief Minister and other elected members, and gained everybody’s appreciation.
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Paryavaran Mitra conducts online quiz
An online quiz on general environmental awareness was conducted on the 12 July, 2011. The response was overwhelming. 200 people from all walks of life logged in and participated in the quiz comprising of 29 questions to be answered in 30 minutes.
This is the first time CEE has made use of Information and Communications Technology to spread environmental awareness through the environmental quiz. Encouraged by the response to this quiz, the team plans to conduct quizzes related to different environmental days. The top winners of the quiz were Ms. Sreya S, a student of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Hyderabad, Mr. Shubham Kumar from Tuft’s University, Dr Nirbhay P Desai, an ENT surgeon, a student from STS School, Ms. Aparajita Rajwade of The Ecological Society, Ms Snigdha Kar of the Indian Youth Climate Network, and Mr Suresh Rana of the University of Jammu. |
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Paryavaran Saathi
Paryavaran Mitra has launched its volunteer initiative, Paryavaran Saathi. The initiative is an answer to requests from individuals who wanted to make a contribution to the programme. The initiative encourages individuals, especially parents, to contribute time to teach and learn with students and teachers while helping them undertake actions on the five themes of the Paryavaran Mitra Programme. |
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Paryavaran Mitra in Andhra Pradesh
Paryavaran Mitra programme was carried out in Andhra Pradesh in a state-level competition mode. The initiative was carried out in partnership with the Department of Education, Andhra Pradesh. The winners of the competition were 22 schools, one selected from each district. Information material and activity guides were given to schools and schools conducted activities like growing vegetables in the school backyard, celebrating eco-festivals, reparing taps and saving water, energy audits, etc.
22 schools (one from each district) have been declared as winners. The Hand Print of these schools has been encouraging.
Hand Print of the 22 schools
Energy saved
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Waste collected
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Trees planted
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Water saved
(litres) |
10,914 |
625 |
2523 |
5,279 |
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Supporting Urban Sustainability (SUS) – Collaborative learning for ecosystem services governance in the context of poverty alleviation
Residential workshop in Sweden, June 6 – 18, 2011
The ground-breaking SUS-programme brings together teams of urban planners, educators and city government officials to support collaboration and learning for strong urban sustainability and to share and learn from experiences from differing contexts. It is offered by SWEDESD, in close cooperation with the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) based in India, the Southern African Development Community’s Regional Environmental Education Programme (SADC-REEP), the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD), Global Action Plan International (GAP Int’l) and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).
The SUS-programme is structured around the view that meeting the challenges of rapid urbanization requires a significant shift towards more collaborative, adaptive and reflexive forms of urban planning and governance, underpinned by processes of collaborative learning. The SUS-programme is focused on ecosystem services approaches to poverty alleviation (ESPA) in urban settings. ESPA seeks to tie together experiences of social and environmental programmes in order to tackle poverty alleviation in a more holistic manner, recognising the interdependence between humans and nature.
Since its launch in April 2011, start-up workshops have been conducted in Asia, Africa and Sweden with identified stakeholders from the cities. The Ahmedabad stakeholders team includes members from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA), CEE, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, Environmental Planning Collaborative (EPC), and Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA).
The multi- institutional team from Ahmedabad participated in the 2 week Residential Workshop held in Malmo and Visby, Sweden from June 6-18, 2011. The team focused on developing blueprint of development plan for restoration of water bodies in the city by enhancing interdependence between humans and nature through finding ESPA linkages in the urban context. The The programme held in Swedish cities of Malmo and Visby provided the Ahmedabad team an opportunity to refine the proposed initiative through interaction with the other city teams present.
From CEE, Ms. Madhavi Joshi was present as a faculty member and Ms. Shefali Atrey participated as one of the members of the Ahmedabad city team.
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City government officials from six cities in Bangladesh (Dhaka), India (Ahmedabad), Kenya (Mangaung), South Africa (Grahamstown), Sweden (Malmo) and Tanzania (Arusha) shared and learnt from experiences from differing contexts |
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ESD in Formal Education in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India and Indonesia
Sida sponsored International advance Training Programme in ESD in Formal Education 2011 commenced with the opening National Workshops in the 5 participating Asian countries. This series of 2- day workshops were held in, and for, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India and Indonesia during the months of May, June and July 2011. The team members from CEE included Carol, Parthesh, Shefali, Vanitha and Shivani.
The main objective of the programme is to provide an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experiences in ESD in the formal education sector. The programme aims at increasing understanding of the different dimensions of Sustainable Development (environmental, socio-cultural and economic) and the educational responses needed. The training programme has a rights perspective including issues such as human and child rights, democracy, equity and poverty reduction.
This year there are 14 teams (participants, co-participants and their supervisors) representing Asia: 1 from Afghanistan, 3 from Bangladesh, 3 from Cambodia, 4 from India and 3 from Indonesia in the International advance Training Programme.
The year- long programme, offered in blended learning mode, begins with national workshops in each of the participating countries.
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Workshop participants at the Centre for Environment Education(CEE), Ahmedabad |
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CEE ka Biscope (CkB) 2011 commences
CEE ka Biscope – An ICT enabled fun-filled learning programme for children has entered in its third year. The use of ICT and Geoinformatics tools has enabled young learners to establish close links between text-books and real life, leading to applied and enriched learning. Over the years, CEE ka Biscope has reached out to about 800 students, helping them become global citizens having a holistic approach towards their natural and socio-economic environment. Practice based learning for interpreting the local environment has been integral to the philosophy of the programme.
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| CEE Ka Biscope focuses on use of maps, satellite images, and a variety of teaching aids like animation, educational games, surveys, case studies and outdoor visits. |
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CkB 2011 commenced during the months of June-July 2011. The module is being conducted for grades VII, VIII and IX. CkB programme includes interactive sessions linked to the science and social science syllabus of the various grades. CkB modules this year are dealing with themes like Climate Change; Population and Development; and Waste Management. CkB is reaching out to about 200 students this year. Team members from CEE’s GIS Cell and the Networking and Capacity building group are involved in this exciting programme of the Centre.
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Recognition for CEE
A two- day state level workshop on "Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation: Role of Civil Defence and other Organizations” was organized by the Directorate of Civil Defence, Homeguards and Auxiliary Police, Jammu & Kashmir. It was inaugurated by Minister of State, Home at Sheri-i-Kashmiri International Conference Centre, Srinagar.
The aim of the workshop was to sensitize and build the capacity of various stakeholders to ensure safety of all citizens, minimizing losses and formulation of strategy for disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the state. The workshop attracted deliberations from experts from National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), IIT Roorkee, Universities of Delhi and Jammu and leading local organizations.
Government officials and NGOs who played a significant role post - 2005 Kashmir Earthquake, and are still working in the field of Disaster Management & Preparedness were felicitated at the end of the workshop.
CEE Himalaya and Action Aid were the only two NGOs who were honoured by the Chief Secretary of State with certificate of appreciation, and mementos for their valuable contribution and commitment towards the welfare of people in the state.
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