Participation in International Conference on Biodiversity Conservation and ESD

Theme

Conservation of biodiversity cannot be achieved without the active participation and support from civil society. Students, Decision Makers, Business Professionals and others need to understand the key underlying issues involved in biodiversity conservation and the way development affects this. For people to begin to recognize the relationship between biodiversity and human well-being and reflect on how this is exemplified in every -day life there is a need to recognize the need for biodiversity education as an essential component of ESD. It is therefore important to strengthen education programmes with a stronger biodiversity component so that they enable educators and learners to protect biodiversity. The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD 2004-2014) focuses on engaging people on education and training to address the inter linkages between ecosystems and livelihoods, nature with culture, society with the economy, and the actions we can take without affecting our quality of life. Biodiversity is acknowledged as a key issue that needs to be part of awareness-raising, learning and education for a sustainable future. The Decade aims at reorienting educational programmes in order to develop new educational contents and materials; and formulate new learning paths that would take into account the meaning and importance of biodiversity through quality education in the area of biodiversity. Centre for Environment Education (CEE) is organised a parallel event in partnership with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, titled "Learning to Conserve Biodiversity in a Rapidly Developing World" on 13 and 14 October, 2012 at the HICC during COP11.

Biodiversity, Non Formal Education and Formal Education

The Biodiversity Conservation and ESD Conference seek to facilitate an invigorating consultative process through the WGs. The WG proceedings will feed into overall conference outcome and plenaries / recommendations and declaration.

Four thematic workshops are being planned. The objective of the WG is to:

Prepared a status report on work done so far through sharing of best practices and experiences
Defined issues and challenges in mainstreaming Biodiversity Education in Education for Sustainable Development
Prepared a road map for the future and specifically make recommendations to COP 11 at Hyderabad

The WG was for 5 and half hours during this two day Conference. On Day 1 the session was for 2 hours and included introductions. On Day 2 the pre lunch session was for 1 and half hours while the post lunch session was for 2 hours including conclusions.

Day 2:

Session	Resource person/Facilitator
Inaugural and Plenary - 1	Inauguration by Ms. Purandeswari Devi, MoS, MHRD, Facilitation by CEE
Working Group session (Non formal education): Youth and Biodiversity Introducing the Non formal education working group themes and objectives	Non formal education workshops facilitator (Madhavi/Meena/Santosh)
Achieving Strategic Plan and Aichi targets – Youth agenda	WII
Role of Awareness and Education in Biodiversity Conservation – Youth engagement	Rupa Gandhi, Wildlife Trust of India
Discussion with the experts; flagging points for day 3	Facilitated by Madhavi Joshi, CEE
Plenary 2 Values and Ethics in Biodiversity Conservation	Mirian Vilela, Facilitation by CEE
Dinner and Cultural programme

Day 3:

Session	Resource Person/Facilitator
Plenary 3 Aichi Targets and Education	Facilitation by CEE
Youth working group session -Round table discussions around 5 Aichi goals -Youth panel to present outcomes	Facilitation by Supriya, TERI
Youth working group session - Youth Panel to facilitate final recommendations	Facilitation by Supriya and Madhavi
Non formal education – Concluding session	Non formal education workshops facilitator (Madhavi/Meena/Santosh)
Closing Plenary – Inputs into COP 11 and DESD 2014	Facilitation by CEE

Had great and amazing journey of COP 11 | CBD | Young India for Biodiversity.

Successfully drafted Zero Draft of COP 11 to be proposed by CEE on 17th Oct.