Youth and Nature Photography

At the end of January we had two visitors from Canada. Susan and Nat Tileston. They are professional photographers who are retired .They now run a project called “My story Photo project”. They came to ECO-V as volunteers and conducted a 6 day training workshop. We selected 10 youth including few Yathrees and it was very nice to see how youth got their skills developed on Nature photography. They made a beautiful story on environmental conservation using 10 photographs as the last exercise of the training. We held an exhibition at Sarvodaya Head Quarters with their photos and stories.  Sarvodaya Vice President Mrs. Neetha Ariyaratne came as chief guest and she admired young eyes and their passion towards Nature conservation and photography.  Two reporters came to cover the training course and there is a news report on Asia News http://www.asianews.it/news-en/A-photography-course-to-protect-Sri-Lanka%E2%80%99s-environment-23980.html

At exhibition with Mrs. Neetha Ariyaratne



Teaching at classroom



making corrections of teh photos taken by prticipants

more practical

Practicles in the Natural environmnet

There are more news on this training session on our face book  http://www.facebook.com/groups/119363511453200/

and on Susan’s blog http://msppa2012colombo.blogspot.com/2012/02/of-lunches-in-paper-and-slrs.html?spref=fb

KNY - Workshop for Yathrees……..on youth and Climate change

January was a busy month for ECO-V. We invited all the youth who participated in Kelani Nadee Yathra (KNY) for a two day residential work shop on Climate Change. 16 Yathrees out of 21 participated. Some Yathrees had University exams and two of them could not make it due to a private family function. 

It was very productive two days we spent in Colombo. I was able to share lot of information I gathered during my training in Sweden on Climate Change mitigation and adaptation in October 2011. 

Imala talking to others

One hour DVD movie on journey and sharing post journey experiences, challenges they faced after the river journey was more fun and refreshing for all of us. Yoga sessions, experiencing nature, giving more leadership skills were part of the training. We too discussed future plans. They all were trained to conduct a public survey on existing knowledge on Climate change at grass route level in their home towns.

It was very nice to see Selva and Newton from North province again who are out of rehabilitation camps. They were more relaxed, actively involved and shared their experience after Kelani Nadee Yathra without the help from a Translator.

All the yathrees went back with the promise to expand their projects more with the knowledge they gained during two days. We hope to have them again to showcase their success in an exhibition in Colombo soon.

Niwton explaining

During sessions

 

During night-informal learning

A New Year with New Plans…

Its 2012, I was thinking about ECO-V and its activities for last year. What a year!! It was a different start and Different end in 2011. We were living in Melbourne and making plans for JCJ and its first journey “Kelani Nadee Yathra” which was a great success at the end of the year. Even before end of year we were able to complete the journey. Now we have 21 Yathrees with us to do more work for Nature Conservation and address Climate Change issues in 2012. We have already planned another workshop on 14^th and 15^th of January 2012 for these youth activists to make them more strengthen in campaigning. 

Thanks to Conservation Leadership Programme, I was able to travel to New Zealand on December 4^th to attend the 25^th International Congress on Conservation biology (ICCB). It was a great opportunity to present some of our Pelican Conservation work at the congress. I also had very useful discussions on Climate Change and Biodiversity with participants at different sessions. 

Beauty of the hot springs in Rotarua

Temperature is over 100 centigrades in these pools

Boiling mud pools

Interestingly, I had the opportunity to visit Rotarua with my friend who lives in Auckland to see geothermal activities. It helped me to understand what I have learnt at Sweden Climate Change training programme. I was very impressed about all environmental protection actions that New Zealand government had taken (specially in Bio-Diversity an agriculture protection). I brought back lot of information which will be helpful for further actions of ECO-V.

Reporting back to Melbourne….

Giving a presentation at Department of Sustainability and Environment

I had a very successful official visit to Melbourne from 24^th November to 4^th December 2011. The purpose of the visit was to present the success of the river journey (Kelani Nadee Yatra) to Journeys for  Climate Justice (JCJ) . It was very nice to meet all the advisory board members including former Governor of Victoria Prof. David De Kretser who was very happy to hear about the success of the journey. I had so many meetings with people who are into energy sector, finance sector, land care and Climate Change areas. All meetings gave many ideas, contacts and networking opportunities to develop JCJ and also to support youth projects started in Sri Lanka after the river journey. I also had the opportunity to talk to Australian media along with Jim Crosthwaite who is the co founder of JCJ. I had interviews with SBS TV news and Channel 31 too.  Sri Lankan community living in Melbourne had organized us a very nice meeting where I presented about our work and also showed the documentary made on Kelani Nadee Yathra. I should thank our friend Manjith and friends for arranging this excellent meeting for Sri Lankan community. There were 3 more main public talks organized at Westgarth where we lived last year, Geelong and in Glen Weverly. 

Giving a talk at Sri Lankan event in Glen Weverly

It was a very short visit with many presentations, meetings and public talks and also catching up with our old friends very briefly. After 9 days in Melbourne I am in New Zealand now, attending the 25^th International Congress on Conservation Biology. I have to give a presentation on our Pelican research we did for ECO-V.

Training on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation- Sweden

This is one of the best trainings I have ever followed - Climate Change mitigation and adaptation; sponsored by SIDA and conducted by Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) in Norrokoping, Sweden.  When  I recall the other trainings I have had during my carrier I can rate this on par with the  training on endangered species management at Durrell, Jersey UK and training of trainers at Waheningan in Netherlands. All these trainings gave me skills and lot of confidence to continue my career as a conservationist. Since Climate Change issues are addressed at broader level now, this training is very important for me. One month in Sweden with 22 other middle level managers who are actors of climate change in their countries coming from various backgrounds was very helpful for us to share experience and learn from each other. 

Course content was not only restricted to theory but more practical exposure too given to us. Visiting many Swedish initiatives like wind and solar power stations, sustainably designed cities, exposure to bio gas production for transportation in Stockholm, bio energy production out of garbage and sewage for National electricity grid, are great experience we came across. It was very interesting to learn more about climate change scenarios, assessing vulnerability, modeling, protocols with the legal background, initiatives in Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM), Cleaner Development Mechanism (CDM), and Payment for Environmental Services (PES), Reducing Emission from Avoiding  Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) etc. 

Trainees in Stockholm

During one month of staying in Sweden, I questioned myself why can’t we do it in our country? what make us prevent initiating?…why??…and always what?…and how?..So now I am ready to go back to Sri Lanka to try my best to continue my mission as a campaigner, communicator, leader and a citizen to do my best to convince stakeholders, direct them to do what they can do and let them think about what they should do. I am not sure how far I can go but at least I know I have 21 youth ambassadors already trained to some extent (Thanks to Kelani Nadee Yathra) to be ready to go forward and always with young energy. So let’s go for it…with like minded people, politicians and policy makers …because its “our country our future”.

Short visit to London in September soon after Kelani Nadee Yatra

September was a really busy month for me. Soon after I finished the final celebrations of Kelani Nadee yatra I went to London. It was on an invitation from Conservation leadership Programme (CLP) to give a presentation at a ceremony they have organized.

With Catherine Isherwood

It was a short but a very nice visit where I was able to meet some of my old friends whom I have met through my conservation work. I also met my  dear friend Catherine Isherwood. She was a member of Sinharaja 97 expedition which came to Sri Lanka in 1997. This expedition which came after winning a CLP award was the turning point of my conservation career. Catherine is a Geologist in Sterling now after finishing her PhD. Even after 14 years , we are a good team as Julia Jones and Claire Ferry are also with me whenever I need any assistance for our conservation work. In fact very recently Claire had a walk around Northern Ireland to raise funds for three conservation organization including ECO-V(http://lovenaturewalkni.blogspot.com/).

Dr. Mark Rose in the middle

Three of past CLP award winners were invited for this event they have organized at BP head office in London .We had to share our success after winning CLP awards with the BP officials. This event gave me the opportunity to meet Dr. Mark Rose the head of Fauna and Flora International (FFI) whom I have met during Whitley awards interviews in 2002. CLP had also organized another meeting for me at FFI Cambridge which gave me the opportunity to show the video of Kelani Nadee Yatra and talk about the river journey. Thanks to Robyn Dalzen and Stuart Paterson of CLP for inviting me for the event.