Thursday, February 17, 2011

Conservation Education - Approaches and Ideas from a national network

This post shares a piece that finds space in the newsletter of the Nilgiri Natural History Society (NNHS) ~ http://nnhs.in/


A succinct introduction to Keystone Foundation (KF), Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) and the Nilgiri Natural History Society (NNHS) marked the beginning of the 3rd retreat of the Conservation Education group. This group, an informal network of people, organizes annual retreats for members to deliberate on their experiences with conservation education. Attempts are made to conduct these retreats at locations where participants can also put in time and learn from actions of the host organization. KF was the host for the October 2010 retreat



NBR, at the current juncture, is bereft of a legal status and as a corollary is managed by multiple agencies. This does not help towards its conservation. However with the Western Ghats Expert Panel appointed by the government the anomaly stands a good chance of being addressed. KF has a significant presence in the NBR by virtue of their presence that exceeds a decade and programs which include capacity-building, documentation, action-research, advocacy, awareness and networking. Discussions on KFs efforts were well received by the participants; these focused on their programs on bee-keeping and conservation-education. The later in particular is a novel concept that has elders share their knowledge on medicinal plants and other wildlife as also myths and legends with younger folk in and around their villages. Oral knowledge is thus transferred to the next generation that follows a lifestyle very different from that of their grand-parents.

As a first the group members had invited an expert to share views on education, Dr. Vasavi from National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), who gave an interesting talk on ‘Elements towards Ecologies of Knowledge’. She shared of issues confronting rural India that ranged from education to challenges faced by youth and also pointed out to the dichotomy between the rush for primary education and disillusion with higher education. The talk outlined 3 pronged crises one encounters today; ecological, economic and social as also brought out the overlaps and interlinks in issues confronting conservation, education and rural India.

Members faced challenges when interacting with different segments of the society and a session had been planned on ‘Communication strategies for different audiences’.  As participants shared their experiences from diverse situations across the country their co-participants chipped in with questions and comments. These deliberations touched issues that include:
1.      Communications; dire need to pay more attention to, which could also lead to separate strategy for each section of the audience.
2.      Investing in time; for nurturing relationships and trust as also to understand the nuances associated with location and stakeholders.
3.      Marketing; need to sell the concept of conservation education and potential role media could play therein.

Blogs are an interesting tool for communication and the participants planned for a session on blogs in lieu of one that could not be held due to unavoidable circumstances. Existing blog of a member was discussed threadbare during the session at the end of which a fresh blog was created for another member while most of those present seemed to agree that blog could play a pivot in process documentation of their efforts. Questions on creation and maintenance of a blog were discussed; these included:
1.      Upload; Can all files be uploaded on a blog; be they image files, music files or video files?
2.      Comments; Could comments could be made by anybody? Was it possible to control them? Are they are seen by all visitors to blog?
3.      Presentation; Can template of the blog be changed? How many posts can be seen on the home page? What kind of external products can be put on the blog?

The retreat did not restrict itself to KF campus. Participants went for an early-morning walk to Longwood Shola, a Reserve Forest (RF) in Kotagiri (located within tea-estates, plantations, villages) and besides other species also visited by gaurs and leopards. Another enthusing walk was to Sullivan’s cottage; a monument that boasts of an interesting collection of artifacts depicting the history of Nilgiris and the movement to conserve the landscape. Visit to Bee Museum - Green Shop at Ooty was also organized where besides film-screening and the impressive posters and interactive material participants put in time to make purchases from the Green Shop.

The penultimate session sought feedback on the 2010 retreat and suggestions on 2011 retreat.

Some feedback on 2010 retreat:
1.      Host agency staff gets to interact with Conservation Education network personnel attending the meeting; this is one off-shoot of having meetings at separate locations.
2.      KF’s work and sessions with elders were innovative and well organized.
3.      The retreat inspired and enabled to interact with like-minded people and gain access to resources which otherwise would be difficult

Some suggestions for 2011 retreat:
1.      Further deliberations on ‘Communication strategies’ and ‘Ecologies of Knowledge’.
2.      Field visits to Conservation Education projects in action.
3.      Action based learning depending on the venue.

Thanking all group members and Keystone Foundation. 

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