Kerala

Report of Youth Forum 2008 and WWF Association

Kerala State Youth Welfare Board conducted an exhibition at Durbar Hall Ground, Ernakulam from 01.05.08 to 08.5.08. WWF-India, Kerala State Office also associated by putting up a stall displaying our panels and products. The different panels displayed include the Panels on Biodiversity of Kerala, Poster series brought out by TRAFFIC, Poster series brought out by Climate Change and Energy Programme, Poster series on Significance of Mangrove Ecosystem and Need for its Conservation etc. The products put on display included t-shirts, bags, caps, ties and scarves etc. As part of the whole programme there were a lot of presentations and discussions. Mr. A.K. Sivakumar, Education Officer, Mr, Raghu K., Area Sales Manager and Mr. Sarath, Internship student looked after the logistics and arrangements.

Environment Education Review and Planning Workshop

The planning meeting for the District Co-ordinators of Nature Clubs under WWF-India was held at DIET, Thrissur on 7th and 8th May 2008. Mr. A.K. Sivakumar, Education Officer of WWF-India welcomed the participants and introduced the objectives of the workshop. He pointed out that this meeting is not only for planning Environment Education programmes for Nature Clubs but also for initializing the local level conservation initiatives. Sri. Renjan Mathew Varghese, State Director of WWF-India delivered a presentation on “WWF–India Mission and Work – National and State and target for the future”. He briefed on the programme areas, mode of work and policies of WWF-India at the state and national level. He encouraged the participants to associate with WWF-India as Conservation Partners/ Associates.

The session on sharing previous year’s experience in Nature Club activities provided an opportunity to find out the positive approaches as well as gaps in the mode of programme implementation. The SWOT analysis done on district basis and the brainstorming session was much beneficial to the Coordinators as well as the organizers. The session on Capacity Building was focused on implementation of innovative Environment Education programmes, intervention in local environmental issue, conservation of species at local level, proposal preparation, fund raising, etc contributing to conservation and also aimed at spreading WWF-India’s presence at the local grassroot level. Finally action plans were prepared for each district by the District Co-ordinators.