International Conference of the Social Ecological Research Programme
Berlin, 22 - 23 February 2008
The conference addressed ‘Long-Term Policies: Governing Social-Ecological Change’ and provided opportunities to bring social-ecological research into international debates and the future perspectives of this fi eld. This conference was the eighth event in the series of annual European Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, which began in Berlin in 2001.
The conference was organised by Oldenburg Centre for Sustainability Economics and Management, CENTOS, Oldenburg University and the Environmental Policy Research Centre, Freie University, Berlin.
The Berlin conference brought together recent research and conceptual developments from scientific approaches and discussed the current challenges, research tasks, practical solutions and possible strategies for long-term policies. A mutual exchange between the different actor
groups was facilitated and the practicability of problem solving trans disciplinary work was discussed.
Representatives from particular actor groups such as businesses, civil society and NGOs, politics and the natural and social sciences took active part to integrate their particular expertise.
For more information visit:
www.fu-berlin.de/ffu/akumwelt/bc2008
EE in Teacher Education
Resource book Dissemination Workshops
National Council for Teacher Education and Centre for Environment Education have worked together over the last 2 years towards strengthening environmental education in teacher education in the country.
A set of 3 Resource Books on Environmental Education (EE) has been developed and published in English and Hindi. Experts in teacher education and environmental education guided the development of these Resource Books. They are based on the NCTE-developed curriculum of EE in teacher education and are suitable for use by teacher educators at D.Ed, B.Ed and M.Ed levels.
The books are being disseminated to teacher education institutions by NCTE and through a series of six workshops being conducted by NCTE and CEE. The first workshop was organized in Lucknow in November 2008 for faculty from teacher education institutions in some northern Indian states. Prof. M.A. Siddiqui, Chairperson, NCTE, New Delhi inaugurated the workshop. Participants discussed the opportunities and challenges of infusion of environmental education into teacher education, as well as special projects and courses taken up by them. Sessions
on the use of action projects, ICT, resource materials etc were useful opportunities for sharing of experiences.
Over the coming months and in the next academic year, the institutions participating in the workshops would be developing methods to strengthen EE in their courses. They would also provide their insights into the use of the Resource Books to NCTE and CEE. The next 5 workshops will be held over Dec 08 to Feb 09.
For more information contact:
Shivani Jain, Centre for Environment Education
Nehru Foundation for Development, Thaltej Tekra,
Ahmedabad 380054; Ph: 079 26858002;
Email: shivani.jain@ceeindia.org
COP 10 Wetland Conventtion
The 158 contracting parties to the Convention on Wetlands met in Changwon, the Republic of Korea for COP 10 between 28 Oct – 4 Nov 2008.
The Changwon Declaration presented at the conclusion of the conference gave an overview of priority action steps that together show “how to” deliver some of the world’s most critical environmental sustainability goals.
The Declaration, emphasizes the signifi cance of wetland governance; actions people may take to ensure the effectiveness of wetlands in the fi ght against Climate change; the interconnection between people’s livelihoods and health on wetlands; the effects of land use change
and Biodiversity loss; planning and Sustainable financing; as well as sharing knowledge and experience in wetland Conservation management.
The 10 Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity actively participated in the COP 10 as wetland management plays a crucial issue in biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia.
The Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award in the category of Education was awarded to Dr. Sansanee Choowaew of Mahidol University, Thailand.
For more information visit: www.ramsar.org
Coastal Management Notification - Public Consultations
The Central Government has proposed a new framework to be brought out into force “for managing and regulating activity in the coastal and marine area for conserving and protecting the coastal area for considering and protecting the coastal resources and coastal environment, and for
ensuring protection of coastal population and structure from risk of inundation, due to natural hazards, and for ensuring the livelihoods of coastal population or strengthen by superceding the said coastal regulation zone, notifi cation, 1991.”
In this regards, the government has issued a draft notification, “to be known as coastal management zone (CMZ) notifi cation 2008 for the information of public” in May 2008, in the gazette of India. This was republished in 21st July 2008. In order to get view points on the
CMZ notifi cation 2008 from various stakeholder groups particularly from local communities and NGOs working in the coastal stretches, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, commissioned CEE to facilitate public consultation in the coastal states.
CEE brought out salient features of CMZ notifi cation 2008 in various state languages, widely publicized the consultation workshops, organized these consultations in partnerships
with local NGO’s and CBOs.
Thirty five public consultations were organized in the nine states between 26th July and 13th September 2008. Over 3500 individuals belonging to various stakeholder groups participated. These included representatives of
- local community (individuals from coastal communities, panchayat members and fi sher - farmers association)
- NGOs and trade (working in coastal stretches)
- public authorities (municipal corporation, block, district and state offi cials and political leaders)
- other’s (academic and research organization, legal experts and media)
- corporate bodies (tourism and allied industries participated in this consultation processes and contributed to the discussion.
About 73 percent of the participant represented the local fisher communities. A summary and detailed report of this consultation has been compiled and submitted to the Ministry of Environment
and Forests. Written responses, petitions, documents received during the consultation workshops and audiovideo recordings of the workshop proceedings have also been submitted.
For more information on consultation responses visit:
http://www.ceeindia.org/cee/campaigns/cmz_2008.html
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