“Creating Homes for Spot-billed Pelicans” – The tree planting campaign

The last activity of the GEF/UNDP and WFN supported pilot project on conservation of Spot-billed Pelicans in Undawalawa area was accomplished last Friday. It was a tree planting campaign at one of the selected fresh water tanks in Udawalawa. The tank was suggested to us by the local government as they were very pleased with our idea of planting 150 Kumbuk trees (Ternimalia arjuna) which is one of the best tree species to be planted at fresh water tank catchments areas. It was full of fun at the campaign and we planted 150 one year old saplings. When we started the nursery it was a challenge for us to maintain it as it was severe drought period but thanks to a local community members and one of our team members Nalinda, who took care of the plants we were successful. At the time we planted them yesterday they were about 3 feet tall saplings.

15 school children from Udawalwa Maha Vidyalaya participated in the campaign with two very enthusiastic teachers along with 15 friends of pelicans. Children who were with white school uniform did not have any hesitation to walk in the flooded freshwater habitat and even they dig the holes and carried the plants in the muddy habitat. Soon after finishing digging the ground we had a short tea break where the tea was provided by a member of farmer’s society in the area who admired our effort in rehabilitating the Pelican habitats. According to him only 2, 3 pelicans were observed in the recent past but there were a lot more before. So we hope to plant native trees like Kumbuk, Mee (Madhuca longifolia), Temarine (Tamarindus indica)which are best trees for nesting and perching habitats for Pelicans and other water birds. Since this would be looking ahead for another 30 years only next generation will see the impact of our effort. We started the campaign after meditating for few minutes where I asked school children to pay their respect to the sapling and plant it with extra care and to generate positive energy from the surrounding to the sapling. They loved that idea as no one had done a tree planting campaign like that before. I also talked about Climate change and effect of planting trees as an individual to help in combating climate change.

The next step would be cleaning these fresh water tanks and its surrounding as those habitats are full of invasive plant species (both aquatic and terrestrial). By cleaning the tanks and improving the quality of the habitats we hope to increase the number of bird species around tank habitats and eventually it will encourage pelicans too. This area is full of free roaming Buffalos. Therefore we had to take extra care in protecting the saplings and we used wooden sticks to make strong fences around the plants. So the first step is over and continuous monitoring and replacing plants if needed (some may die and some may be damaged by Buffalos) will be future activities to make this campaign a success. We all worked very hard and completed the task with a great satisfaction at the end of the day.

ECO-V wins Kate Stokes Memorial Award for creating “Friends of Nature”

You may remember that ECO-V won the CLP follow up award last month. Again ECO-V was short listed for the Kate Stokes Memorial Award (KSMA). Only 4 CLP award winners in 2008 were nominated for this award. I was asked for another proposal which supports CLP award but with something long term and sustainable that benefits the local communities.

I considered this as a great opportunity to lay the foundation for our long term vision of establishing the ECO-V training centre. Winning this award was also something very close to my heart as I have known Kate since 2002 before she passed away due to tragic accident in 2006. Though I met Kate only few times in my life I think our friendship runs from many previous births as most of us believe as Buddhists. I still could remember how she was waiting for me in Sao Palo airport in Brazil in 2005 with a ticket to internal flight up to Brasilia. She was kind and caring as a friend and she did not even let me travel up to the hotel alone in Brasilia and she dropped me up to the hotel. I also could remember how she helped me to find a bag which I really loved, taking me around Cambridge. I have lot of good memories about her during those short visits to UK in the company of Marianne, Robin and rest of the friends at CLP. (One in the extreme right of the photograph is Kate).

I never forget this dear friend and I cried when I came to know that I won this. I will make sure that this award will have a great impact on ECO-V future. I am planning to discuss my ideas (which are dreams of course) with my friends at CLP in Chattanooga, USA in coming July.

We are very much determined to lay the foundation for training “Friends of Nature” teams. Young village members aged between 15 and 25 will be selected for a 6 day training session about environmental issues and we are hoping to direct them towards attitudinal change by inculcating them with a more holistic approach on environmental conservation.

I am very sorry for not writing the blog last week as we were busy with the work and did not find the time to do it. Week before, I gave a thematic lecture on Pelicans at Field Ornithology Group (FOGSL) for their monthly meeting and conducted the programme for pregnant mothers with Sarvodaya on Sunday. I spent the last Saturday morning with a local TV station where I discussed the colours of life in the eyes of an environmentalist. It was a refreshing experience for me as it was the first time I discussed about my personnel life as an environmentalist. Any way, it was not that easy as I had to spend whole morning under scorching sun in a lovely beach for recording the programme.

You can read more about KSMA award from http://conservation.bp.com/applications/kateawards.asp

New Year celebrations with “Friends of Pelicans” and awareness programmes in the weekend

Last week we celebrated Sinhala-Hindu New year which is the biggest cultural event in Sri Lanka. This is the time when people forget and forgive and get-together with every member in the society to start a New Year.

We all visited our parents with presents and kids enjoyed the school holiday as it is full of traditional sweets like “kevum, Udu Walalu, Kokis and Athirasa” All Sinhalese and Hindus cooked traditional milk rice, and eat them at a particular time Islanwide. They all go to temple during Avurudu period to get the blessings. For Thushara and me, New Year was a busy time again as we had to submit a proposal for a grant. But we all were with our parents where kids enjoyed playing with their in-laws and grand parents.

After the New Year celebrations I visited Udawalawa as the “Friends of Pelicans” also have arranged a small New Year celebration for everybody. They have arranged a reception with all kind of sweets and we had a very happy and quite celebration there. I came back on the same day as I had to attend a workshop on the following day. I was invited to deliver a lecture on “How youth can develop their lives by closely associating the nature”. This three day youth workshop was organized by Sarvodaya for 80 children of 13-16 age representing 4 districts of Sri Lanka.

I talked about how youth can sharpen their five senses by closely mingling with nature and how those senses could be used to develop themselves in their day to day lives by respecting, protecting other living beings around them.

Sunday was dedicated to the programme for pregnant mothers where 45 would be parents participated. All parents were very emotional at the end of the programme. They explained how great to know that their unborn baby can be directed to nature conservation and they all said that it was a great feeling and experience they had for the first time in their lives.

Please visit our website (www.eco-v.org) to read more about our work and we have updated the blog with new video clips of pelican conservation project.

Kanchana

ECO-V completes its Tsunami work - 2

Last Sunday morning on my way back from opening "Green Monestry", I visited another family whom we helped during tsunami. Do you believe that this family has 11 members? It was only 10 when we found them in a small hut in Galle and now they have a new member added to their family. I just went their to hand over the deed for their land. We were really happy to note that how our contributions have changed their lives. All our friends who contributed to these worthy causes of helping the victims can be happy, that every cent of their money was spent to change the lives of many victims in Sri Lanka. But I should mention that this project was possible mainly due to the tireless and selfless efforts of Mrs. Thilaka Arambawela and Mrs. Vajira who has been our volunteers coordinating this project.

So this completes the Tsunami rehabilitation and you can visit our website at http://www.eco-v.org/ to read the full report on Tsunami rehabilitation activities.

Kanchana

ECO-V completes its Tsunami work - Haritha Asapuwa

Last Saturday was a very special day for ECO-V and its members. I participated in the green monastery (Haritha asapuwa) opening ceremony at Manawila, Walahanduwa in Galle. This was the last task we accomplished with the money donated by our well-wishers to Tsunami victims of Sri Lanka. Although it’s not completely finished, chief priest of the temple Ven.Keradawala Pungnarathana Thero wanted have an opening ceremony. Still we have to complete the third floor of the building and Thero wanted to use this ceremony to get the people to contribute for the next stage of the temple. ECO-V has also been looking for the funds for the rest of the project and has been unsuccessful so far but hope to help the Thero whenever we can to complete the monastery. It was a dream coming true though our organization still does not have a proper place for ECO-V office and I operate from my home. But the chief priest and the other people work with us for Tsunami victims were happy as this was a really a fulfilling moment in their lives especially as Buddhists. We have named this temple as “Haritha asapuwa” and we hope the devotees of the temple will carry our message on environmental conservation in to their lives. We also wish that the new temple will be a place that advocates environmental consciousness among its community in years to come. Some of beneficiaries during Tsunami and our members participated in the event and the Pirith chanting ceremony that followed in the Saturday night.

Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Conference and Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) award.

I have been selected to present a paper on ECO-V’s Pelican conservation work at the annual conference of SCB in July in Chattanooga, USA. This is the second time I am going to present our work at a SCB conference. Last time it was in Brazil in year 2005 where I got the opportunity meet some other researchers working on Great White Pelicans and shared many ideas with them.

This time I am going to talk about the challenges we faced during our pelican project during last 4 years and also how we created awareness and consciousness on this threatened species among different stakeholders who had zero knowledge (scientific and behavioral information) on pelicans and their habitats and how they became nature lovers and conservationists.

ECO-V received the continuation award for Pelican Project from Conservation Leadership programme (CLP) (Former BP awards) this year which is a great encouragement. The award ceremony and the training will be held in Chattanooga, USA in July. Harsha, our field coordinator to the Pelican Conservation Project has been nominated for the training and he will be attending the SCB conference too which would be an interesting experience for both of us to attend the conference together. I have already received this training in 2003 when I won the first award from CLP. Our team has also been selected to get a 5 days training course on GIS sponsored by CLP following the SCB conference which would be very useful for both our Pelican project and the Kalu Wandura (Leaf langur) Project.

Our “Friends of Pelicans” at Udawalwa were delighted about this news as they can continue their good work with additional funding to sharpen their skills through our association for another year.

Kanchana

First Exhibition on Western Purple-faced Langur

As I mentioned before, last weekend was very much important for the Friends of Pelicans team from Udawalawe. They made their first appearance as a team for environmental conservation at the exhibition ECO-V organized with the Dr. Rudy’s team on conservation of Western purple-faced langur (WPFL). I was happy and thrilled to see them working with the people and the enthusiasm they showed during the exhibition. Now I am sure ECO-V has achieved the objective of taking the conservation actions to the villages and empowering them with the knowledge for them to protect the Mother Nature around them. My next goal will be to fulfill my dream of starting the ECO-V conservation education programe for the village youth in other districts of Sri Lanka where we have worked before. This will be the next step for us and it is another step going beyond our more popular youth camps.

Exhibition on WPFL was a success at Pulinathalaramaya temple in Kalutara (North) and lot of kids who participated in the essay and art completions organized by Dr. Rudy’s team was present there to receive their prices. Hon. Patali Champika Ranwaka, Minister of Environment and Natural resources was there to open the exhibition for the public. He too explained the importance of conservation of WPFL and promised the government patronage to the project. We had a hard day of explaining the importance of WPFL and trying to get the message across to the people of the area on WPFL. Friends of Pelicans were very active and independent through out the exhibition. Head Priest of the temple Ven. Dodampahala Siri Suguna Thero was very happy about the exhibition and wanted to continue the work in the district. In fact he asked me to form a team called “Friends of Kalu Vandura” the Sinhala name for the WPFL. The next exhibition will be held at the temple in Waga after the New Year festival. Dr. Rudy’s team members were very pleased with the end of the exhibition as it has happened as they have planned.

Next weekend ECO-V members will be traveling to Galle for the weekend to open the Haritha Asapauwa (Green Monastery) to complete their Tsunami rehabilitation programme.

Kanchana