Happy New Year – 2010

A new year has begun. When we look back at 2009 we can be very happy as we were able to achieve almost all the goals we had for 2009. We will be celebrating our 10th anniversary on the 7th of February 2011,therefore we will set the targets for this year and they will continue up to next year.

Training 20 youth as “Friends of Mother Earth” and completing basic work for habitat conservation in Udawalawa area for Conservation leadership Programme (CLP) award were the main highlights of year 2009. Personally getting training on wetland management from Netherlands, Invasive species management from Durrell; Jersey zoo and scientific writing from India were great opportunities to get developed skills. Also those ave me opportunities to meet new friends from all over the world and had the time to meet my old friends from UK and India.

At the beginning of 2010, John Pilgrim who works for BirdLife Vietnam, an old friend of mine visited us during his bird watching tour in Sri Lanka. It was really nice to have him with us share our experience. I think he really enjoyed the setup at ECO-V office and facilities for our international volunteers.

All at ECO-V and my family are really looking forward to have another successful year. We are looking forward to residential training workshop for ECO-V members which is scheduled for 16th and 17th of January including a nature watching boat tour along Bolgoda lake. We are also getting ready for another awareness campaign in Colombo which will take place in March.

I take his opportunity to thank everybody who were with us for year 2009 by encouraging and admiring our efforts and will very much hope that you all will be with us in 2010 too. We are determined to commit our selves to do our duty to protect Mother Earth.

Thank you and wish you all the best for year 2010 which is the International year of Biodiversity. Kanchana, Thushara, Boo and Nipu