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Indigenous Voices at the United Nations

The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council, with a mandate to discuss indigenousissues related to economic and social development, culture, theenvironment, education, health and human rights.

Applications for grants under the Small Grants Programme under the Second Decade will be accepted between 1 July 2010 and 1 October 2010.Applications are to be submitted to: indigenousfund@un.orgduring this time period. Applications submitted outside of this timeperiod or to other email addresses will not be considered for funding.The proposals will be assessed by the Bureau of the UN Permanent Forumon Indigenous Issues in May 2011 and successful applicants will receivenotice thereafter. A list of organizations awarded grants will also beposted on this website.

Please note:
- Project must have a focus on indigenous peoples
-All applicants must submit their project proposals in accordance withthe Trust Fund Project Proposal Format and include both a summary sheetand a proposal document
- Projects will be disregarded if the required information is not present.
- Additional information pertaining to the proposal will not be accepted beyond the deadline of submission (1 October 2011)

For more information click the link:

http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/

Environment education is a lifelong process with the objective of inculcating among children a sense of respect and responsibility towards the environment. This education has to start as early as possible.

If we want children to develop love and concern for the environment, we need to invigorate ecology with emotions because only emotions that affect the heart can bring a change of attitudes. One of the best ways to create these attachments and instill ecological values and ethics is to tell stories that impart pro-environmental emotions.

Here are 5 great reasons to use storytelling:

Impart knowledge while entertaining and involving the listener.

Give children a chance to learn in an interesting way about the world around them.

Introduce kids to new concepts.

Enliven any topic and add depth to a lesson.

Give an opportunity for emotional transformation as every story is designed to provide a moral message.

Here are 5 great reasons to use eco-storytelling:

Promote an understanding of the relationship between man and the environment.

Develop awareness and the knowledge necessary for children to become stewards of the earth.

Promote environmental education in school and community.

Bring environmental education to life.

Encourage children to become role models for environmental change.

Here are 5 great reasons to use the Ecological Tales from India series:

# Help children reconnect with Indian traditions: ecology is about going local, eating local grains, planting local fruit trees, dressing with local fabrics, using local resources…

# Revive Indian traditional knowledge systems: India is one of the last big repositories of ecological traditions and has plenty of local skills and expertise in the fields of medicine, water harvesting, forest management, agriculture, animal care, textile, architecture… to share with the world.

# Experience the wisdom of India's traditional people who have always lived in harmony with nature.

# Discover India's biodiversity: wildlife, endemic plants, natural forests…

# Introduce environment education with a new and positive approach: there is more to environment education than tragic apocalyptic figures that leave kids helpless.

The range of titles you will find in the Ecological Tales from India series is simply stunning! In addition to the marvelous selection of wildlife tales, you will find tales from India's tribal villages, colorful arid lands, lush green jungles, mighty sacred rivers, glacial peaks, crowded cities…

With the Ecological Tales from India series, environment education is no longer a boring subject that make kids slump over desks with a strong urge to sleep but one terrific journey around India. Mera Bhaat Mahaan!

To know more about the Ecological Tales from India series, click here

• To assess the state of forestry education and research in the Asia-Pacific Region.
• To identify major issues and challenges confronting the forestry education and research sectors.
• To initiate the process of charting the future direction of forestry education and research.

Applied Environmental Research Foundation, Pune is working towards development of forests & biodiversity in western ghat areas. As a moral responsibility, lets contribute them to develop forest area which is rapidly declining in India due to various anthropogenic activities. Let it be a very little amount but definitely if we put our hands together i think it will definetely make a huge difference.

Raghava

I hope that this write up, might get noticed by some policymakers who wish to implement environmental laws in practical India.

Today, in the morning when I was on my way to my office (in New Delhi), I came across a storm water drain. The drain was carrying effluent water with dark green colour and strong odour. On the further way ahead, my mind was completely occupied by the fate of that effluent, its effects on the water bodies, on the flora and fauna of that water body and ultimately on the man who consume those fishes or water. My mind got further irritation when I realized that there must be hundred such nallas in the city and thousands of sources of such effluents, which ultimately get their space in the so called SACRED river YAMUNA.

According to my best of the knowledge, we have a Yamuna Action Plan implemented since past …. years but still no significant improvement in the state of the river. What I strongly believe is that we are wasting our money, energy and time on the rehabilitation of the river and not doing anything on stopping such effluents(at source) from coming into the mainstream.

I do not challenge the national laws and statutes for environment protection in India, but I question the practical implementation of these. We have a robust system of environmental clearances for all the industries and the industries are supposed to submit their environmental performance on annual basis to the ministry or pollution control boards. But the main loop hole is how industries manipulate their environmental performance and there is no regular check available from the government.

My suggestion here is that we should have GREEN COPS available at all industrial zones of the country who would have a direct reporting to the central ministry and any misconduct should result into the action against the industry and the state pollution control board. GREEN POSTS should be accessible by the common man, where anyone can report any environmental misconduct observed by him in the area.

The qualifications, eligibility, compensation of the green cops can be determined as such that they must be self motivated and environmental conscious for an effective line of control.

I just wanted to convey my thoughts to the right people, if in anyways it can be of help to the nation or our MOTHER EARTH.

One of my favorite professors at school, Dr. Tim Henry, who practiced dentistry for a while, and now teaches anatomy & physiology, amongst other subjects, lent form to a nebulous idea that had been floating in my mind for a long time. He views the imbalance on our planet akin to imbalance in our body - disease as a dangerous shift from a stable condition of health or 'homeostasis'. As I read further into the wise writings of eminent scientists who have been diagnosing the illnesses of the earth over the past few decades, I realize some disturbing patterns...

Extending Dr. Henry's idea further, one may 'postulate' that the variety of afflictions now tormenting various segments across the globe are symptoms, in the least, of something much worse; only collateral damages - but not the root of the problem. Al Gore, the fearless knight of the American climate crusades, portrays climate change as a planetary 'fever'. It will be of interest for you to note that fevers are not diseases, but symptoms, and rather 'side effects' of a more insidious illness. The hysteria developing over climate change is much like the Western medical approach to resolving a situation where a patient suffers from a fever. To attack symptoms is a form of urgent action, which is not necessarily the right action always [especially when the disease is causing much more damage than just a merely harmless increase in temperature].

Our planet is currently suffering from a disease analogous to what ails humans in the form of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome AIDS. The planet is failing in more than one way - the melting of ice bergs, hotter summers, stronger cyclonic storms, and more unpredictable weather, lower biodiversity, lower crop yields, spread of invasive species, and the like. The symptoms are numerous - much like the multi-faceted failure of the AIDS patient, our planet is probably unable to deal with a gang of remarkably varied criminals, each attacking a separate organ.

I cannot even begin to understand the complexity of this sinister issue - the climate scientist is just as much in a quandary as those doctors who faced the complex situations of diagnosing their first AIDS patients. The Earth-doctors feel similarly helpless and flummoxed, having never encountered something so powerfully devastating. What hope can they give? What hope can I or you give each other in times that we are numb to pain, but not immune to it? The quest for truth, for justice and fairness has already been lost in the din of the crowded marketplaces of a million glittering pieces of glass. We can live in denial - like the first victims of HIV that do not perceive the symptoms for quite a while before the deathly virus gains foothold. Isn't it so easy to deny such a misery than accept it and do what it takes to counter it? Does our civilization have the moral courage for such actions?

Does our civilization have any hope? What hope can we give to each other if our planet has been similarly diagnosed with an incurable, stigmatic illness - one whose effects are not even manifest completely yet. What plan of action does our world now choose - to keep exercising the economic 'biceps', bailing it out occasionally with protein shakes and steroids, while ignoring the crucial ethical leukocytes, and educational nerves? An AIDS patient might have avoided the illness by wrapping tight in a moral fabric too strongly knit to keep breathing in colorful freedom. What kind of devices would have kept the earth from contracting such a promiscuous illness that leads to its failure to sustain itself?

The reluctant messenger of truth has a short lifespan and needs more than bulletproof jackets. It would probably be worthy to criticize my ideas as pessimistic and nihilistic, only if it were true that we have been faithful to our planet. As messengers of the betrayal, climate scientists and writers are often caustically rebuked for throwing cinders onto a peaceful relationship. The enigmatic analogue I present herein may be meaningless and astringent, but I am hoping that a sharper intellect will dissect this piece of linguistic flesh in a future post-mortem to reveal deeper truths, or shallow lies, of the situation that presents itself to us today - an ailing planet, a sick economy, and the critical failure of intellectual courage to go beyond the symptoms and signs, and attack the germs of greed, anger, malice, envy, and lust. Are we training smart farmers who can cultivate a future world, uprooting evil weeds and destroying its sinful seeds? If we cannot be such farmers, will we afford the siesta that could be?

Sri Sai Manasa Nature Tech (P) Ltd a leading Environmental Consulting and Infrastructure Development Company requires the following positions at their Head Office in Hyderabad.

1. EIA Coordinators

Qualification: B.E (Civil) & M.Tech (Environmental Engineering)/ M.Sc (Environmental Sciences)

Experience: 8 years (min) in preparation of EIA reports

2. Sr. Environmental Engineers:

Qualification: B.Tech (Civil/Mechanical/Environmental)

Experience: 6 years (min) in the field of planning, design & execution of ETP/ STP

3. Business Development:

Qualification: MBA (Marketing)/ M.Tech (Environmental Engineering)/ M.Sc (Environmental Sciences)

Experience: Business development experience in Environmental Sector (WTP, STP, ETP & EC & Air pollution control systems

4. Air Pollution Control Systems:

Qualification: B.E (Mechanical)

Experience: 5 years (min) in designing of Industrial Air Pollution Control systems like Bag filters, Scrubbers, Cyclones

Interested candidates may forward their CV's to the following mail id ssmntpl@gmail.com / vsl.ssmntpl@gmail.com