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Dr Archana’s visit to Peru
The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignity and, The Christensen Fund along with many other organizations like The International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) organized a scoping workshop to develop indigenous partnerships for agrobiodiversity research. The workshop was organized in Cusco, Peru from 3rd-6th May 2010. Dr. Archana Godbole, Director, AERF, was invited to share her experiences of agrobiodiversity research and working with the indigenous and local communities. |
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Public Hearing conducted in Asaniye village regarding Mining
Asaniye, a beautiful remote village in the hills of Sawantwadi block, is under threat of being destroyed by Iron ore mining. The region has a good forest cover with many fresh water streams and great biodiversity including tigers. The public hearing on the mining issue was held on 22nd April 2010 in the village. Villagers came prepared and were provided guidance on legal issues by the AERF. Over 700 letters, strongly expressing concerns regarding impacts of mining on wildlife and communities were dully signed, sealed and sent to MPCB by the Asaniye villagers. The collector was also made to apologize for having missed the earlier public hearing and manipulating with the laws. Bhagwati Anna lab was lambasted verbally by the villagers for preparing faulty EIA report. Each one of the entire people present in the hearing expressed their concerns against mining in front of the collector Mr. Pandhar Patte. The meeting went on successfully in favour of the villagers. |
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Deputy Director AERF visits UK - Mr. Jayant Sarnaik attended a two day symposium- Linking biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction: what, why and how?, in London, organised by IIED in collaboration with UNEP-WCMC and AFW in last week of April 2010. Mr. Sarnaik presented a poster at the symposium and also participated in the panel discussion at this symposium. He visited University of Kent to discuss collaborative projects with DICE and oversaw internship projects to be carried out by the DICE students in India at AERF in coming months. |
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CSP Asia representative visits AERF- Mr. Tian Feng, representative of Conservation Stewards Program(CSP), Asia visited AERF in the first week of February 2010 to discuss possible avenues of collaborations with AERF. He also travelled to AERF’s project areas in the Western Ghats for understanding AERF’s work in the field of participatory conservation. |
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International collaborations in the offing at AERF ! - Prof. Douglas Macmillan and Dr.I.G.Bride from Durrel Institute for Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, UK visited AERF in Jan 2010 as part of Darwin Scoping visit. The DICE professors along with AERF core team visited AERF project sites from Northern Western Ghats and discussed possibilities of collaborations. |
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Training of AERF team in field techniques – AERF’s technical advisor Prof. Agoramoorthy visited AERF in last week of January 2010 for imparting necessary skills in field ecology, data collection in conservation monitoring. He spent about a week with AERF staff and interns at AERF field office at Sadawali in Ratnagiri district. |
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AERF is now part of global learning network of conservation practitioners. Mr.Jayant Sarnaik participated in CSP’s 4th Annual Learning network meeting arranged by Conservation International, USA in Mayan Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala in Dec 2009. Mr. Sarnaik shared AERF’s experience in incentive based conservation initiatives in the Northern Western Ghats of India. He got the opportunity to know more about different approaches adopted by participants from other countries while implementing the conservation agreements. |
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Mr.Jayant Sarnaik attended the third business and biodiversity challenge 2010 conference held at Jakarta, Indonesia from 30th Nov – 2nd December 2009,
organised by CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity)in conjunction with UNEP
Business and Industry Global Dialogue. He participated in the
energy session of conference and also provided session feedback to the
audience.
(http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/report_and_recommendations
_to_the_cbd_cop_10.pdf) |
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Mr. Jayant Sarnaik, Deputy Director AERF, participated in the workshop – Biodiversity conservation with stakeholder participation held at Coimbatore from 6-9 October 2009. the conference was organised by US India Educational Foundation(USIEF). Mr. Sarnaik presented a paper - Conservation agreements as a strategy for long term stakeholder participation and assured biodiversity conservation in north Western Ghats, India. |
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Mr. Hari Natarajan- Manager South Asia of GVEP international visited the successful Biodiesel resource centers of AERF in Raigad district and went on to see the new sites selected for the resource centers in Karjat block as part of the next phase of GVEP supported project. He discussed various issues related to the enterprise with the local people. |
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Mr. Rahul Ramchandani and Siddharth Natarajan, interns at AERF and students of S.P. Jain Institute of Management Research (SPJIMR) were invited to participate in the world’s largest graduate level business plan competition organized by Rice University , USA in April 2009. The business plan prepared by these students won a prize in the finals of this competition. |
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Mr. Jayant Sarnaik – Deputy Director, AERF attended the South-east Asia stakeholder outreach meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels held at Kuala Lumpur on 26-27 March 2009. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the version zero of the sustainability standards for production of biofuels developed by Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. |
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Mr. Jayant Sarnaik attended international seminar on Energy and Climate change in cold regions of Asia in Leh, Ladakh organized by GERES, India. The purpose of the seminar was to discuss social, economical and environmental impacts of energy-related projects and adaptation to climate change in cold regions of Asia. About 150 participants from 12 different countries participated in this seminar. |
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Rahul Mungikar, senior research officer at AERF visited Beijing, China from 26th June 2009 to 19th July 2009 to attend the International Conservation Training from CLP. The trainers included renowned personalities such as Mr. Robyn Dalzen from Conservational International (co-ordinator, CLP training), Kiragu (Bird life International), Stuart Paterson (Flora and Fauna International) and Lynn Duda (Wildlife Conservation
Society). Mr. Mungikar presented a poster entitled ‘The disharmony in the forests of India – changing climate and changing forest composition in the Western Ghats of India’, which was well received and appreciated by fellow participants. |
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Professor Agoramoorthy, a world renowned primatologist has agreed to be the Scientific Advisor of AERF. He recently visited AERF field offices and monitored our field areas in Konkan region.He has been guiding Officials, technical and research staff members for over 25 years in the field of ecology. He currently teaches at College of Environmental Sciences in Tajen University in Taiwan. He has served in various global environmental conservation organizations. His research and conservation activities are spread across the globe including India, Liberia, USA, Venezuela, Taiwan, Trinidad, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Peru, Brazil and China. . |
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WWF had organized workshop at BAIF central research station, Uruli kanchan on animal husbandry and fodder development for tribal community. AERF team attended the 5 day workshop, which included talk by experts from various fields and field visits. Training sessions on Artificial Insemination, cattle health and nutrition, developing nutritious fodder in draught prone and rain fed areas, etc. were hosted by the efforts of Dr. Ashok Jape (BAIF) and Mrs. Sangeeta Agarwwal (WWF-India). Training was a great experience for the participants coming from all the corners of the country along with representatives of villages. |
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A film on Sacred Groves by AERF has been screened in Barcelona during the recently held IUCN World Conservation Congress |
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Scientist F of Department of Science and Technology - Vinita Sharma visits Bhimashankar Livelihood Project |
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