2021 Community Dialogue at KAAS Plateau
2021 Community Dialogue at KAAS Plateau
21th October 2021, Wednesday,
“ Community Dialogue is vaccine for conflicts, battles and wars”.
A country’s identity is defined by its rich cultural and natural heritage. UNESCO defines the site as World Heritage Site for having historical, cultural, natural and scientific significance. UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites have expanded into a total of 1154 sites out of which 218 are World Natural Heritage sites from 167 countries as of now.
World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in 2021 at Fuzhou, China inscribed 34 new properties. Out of 34 new inscribed sites, 5 are under the natural heritage category and the remaining 29 are cultural heritage.
Kaas Plateau is one of the 39 serial sites of the Western Ghats, inscribed as World Natural Heritage in 2012. It is mini-site with mega achievements and ambitious future plans. The area covered by the Kaas plateau is just about 16 Sq Kms out of 160,000 Sqaure Kms of Western Ghats which has been identified as one of the hotspots of biodiversity due to its unique ecosystem and abundant endemic species and threats to its flora and fauna. The site is sensitive to external threats arising from insensitive tourism, biotic invasion mainly due to extensive traffic. Climate change and extreme weather events represent the existential threats to ecosystem Western Ghats .
Green TERRE Foundation, a Pune-based global NGO that has contributed significantly to the inscription of the 39 serial natural sites of western ghats , recognises these threats and has been tracking the progress of the Kaas site management by providing guidance to the local community for preservation and restoration of the ecosystems as well as sustainable development of the communities around. It is mainly done through Annual Report Cards (ARC) post-dialogues with the stake-holders. TERRE has been publishing right from 2013 such ARCs , that highlight the outcome of cumulative efforts of the Joint Forest Management Committee ( JFMC) , Forest Division of district Satara of State Government, local community, researchers, experts and journalists. It then goes on to develop the suggestions for future actions.
Every year TERRE along with the Forest Department of Satara District and Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) hosts a community dialogue with the help of its association of UNESCO ( NGO) at the local level to assess the progress and plan for relevant activities related to nature conservation and community development. Due to COVID 19, the annual report cards for the years 2019 & 2020 were not released in absence of the community dialogue.
Kaas community and Green TERRE Foundation are now proposing a community dialogue for the period of 2019-2020. The dialogue will take place on 22nd October 2021 on Kaas Pushpa Pathar (Kaas Plateau of wildflowers) at Ghatai Devi Mandir. The dialogue will be attended by members of the Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) consisting of 6 village heads, bio-diversity experts, researchers , media among others.
Notes for editors:
Green TERRE Foundation is a not-for profit organisation in India. TERRE is a global and local forum for action by youth and communities on the challenges faced by the planet’s ecosystem, particularly climate change, biodiversity, health, and inequality. It facilitates colleges and universities to mainstream the future policy-makers and policy-implementers in implementing the SDGs by promoting sharing of the information on transformative actions undertaken by students and faculties in the campus. More importantly, it encourages to deploy the digital technologies like IoT, AI, Cloud-networking, Machine learning and Block chain for optimum use of energy, water in campus and catalyse effective waste management, sustainable transport, air pollution and nature conservation within the campus.
Smart Campus Cloud Network (SCCN) (www.sccnhub.com) is a flagship project of Green TERRE Foundation. SCCN is a Global Network of 500+ Universities and Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) from 13 countries that localises Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Net Zero. Smart Campus Cloud Network is actively engaging with youth to promote the practical projects in the campus. SCCN is mentored by Erik Solheim, (former Minister of Environment of Norway as well as former USG of United Nations), Dr Vijay Bhatkar (Padma Bhushan and India’s super computer man), and Prakash Javadekar (former Minister of Environment Forest and Climate Change). Ministry of Education (AICTE), Ministry of Power (EESL), UNESCO, UGC, ASSOCHAM and Niti Aayog have supported the project either through formal MOUs with GTF or through strong encouragement.
Contact : Dr Rajendra Shende, Founder Director, former Director UNEP and IIT Bombay Alumnus
