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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 field. 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 problemsolving
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. (see page 11 for details)
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 significance of wetland
governance; actions people may take to ensure the
effectiveness of wetlands in the fight 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, notification, 1991.”
In this regards, the government has issued a draft
notification, “to be known as coastal management zone
(CMZ) notification 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 notification 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 notification 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 fisher - farmers association)
• NGOs and trade (working in coastal stretches)
• public authorities (municipal corporation, block, district and state officials 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
CEE - CMZ consultation team |
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