Caritas Institute of Development Action and Learning (CIDAL) of Caritas India in association with Caritas Nepal organized a webinar on NATURE CONSERVATION: NEED OF THE HOUR  to commemorate World Nature Conservation Day. World Nature Conservation Day (World Nature Conservation Day) each year on July 28 is celebrated. July 28^th is the World Nature Conservation Day and the theme announced by the UN this year is  “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet.” It is a way to highlight how important forests and ecosystems they sustain are important for human livelihoods. World Nature Conservation Day (World Nature Conservation Day) each year on July 28 is celebrated. The main purpose of celebrating World Nature Conservation Day is to conserve the animals, animals, and trees that are extinct from the natural environment of the Earth. The relevance of conserving nature and ecosystem restoration is on the rise, and it is high time for us to act with humanity facing triple environmental emergencies of biodiversity loss, climate disruption, and escalating pollution.  The webinar was attended by 121 participants across Asia. The meeting started with a prayer by Mr. Pradipta Kishore Chand of Caritas India.

Rev. Fr Dr. Jolly Puthenpura welcomed all the participants very warmly and very succinctly, setting the context of the Webinar, emphasizing “Protect, Conserve and Preserve Nature”. He said that through this webinar, CIDAL of Caritas India and the team Caritas Nepal will talk about how to conserve, preserve and protect Natural Resources and how to reset our relationship with Nature.  Nature conservation can take many forms: conserving natural resources such as soil, water, and biomass, growing trees, greening cities, changing diets, or cleaning up rivers and coasts. This is the generation that can make peace with nature. God has created this universe in such a way to ensure Interconnectedness among its creations and is very important for our survival on the earth.

Rev. Fr. Paul Moonjely, Executive Director, Caritas India in his keynote speech citing the various disasters and incidences of Climate variants across the globe such as the drought situation in Madagascar, floods in different parts of India, and the Covid pandemic which has affected many parts of the world. In the context of these disasters, it is high time for us to focus on nature conservation through promoting localized solutions. We need to adapt to the changing climate, new ways of lifestyle, new ways of protecting nature, etc. He spoke with so much passion and motivation and awakening us to contribute our mite to this cause in the form of a spirit-filled and led movement. And to transform it into a community-led movement to address the socio-economic problems of the society, while sharing our commitment to the cause, highlighting the strategy of 3 “P” “People Planet and Partnership”. The need of conserving nature has started gaining momentum due to multifaceted environmental degradations and challenges. We are going to understand sustainable ways of living and addressing questions like what it would look like if we emerged from this pandemic with a fierce new commitment to take care of mother nature.

Dr. Jayshree Vencatesan, Managing Trustee, CARE Earth Trust, Chennai. With your vast experiences of having been in various positions of Govt bodies, CSR and actively engaging with CSOs spoke on the topic “Sustainable Development: A balancing Act ?” very excellently and entrust us by elaborating the relevance of ECOLOGY with special highlight to Providing a set of Indicators besides others. She also raises the question if Sustainable Development is a balancing Act?  Mentioning that human species are not the dominant species but they are just one among the thousand species.  She also emphasizes the need for Time, effort, and expertise to work on Ecology and the knowledge rural women have which are not acknowledged and utilized.  I hope and trust that each of us, have much taken away and will be able to do something on Nature conservation at our personal and organization levels

Dr. Govinda Sharma, Chairperson HASERA Agriculture Research and Training Centre for his beautiful message on Nature conservation while dwelling on “Contribution of Integrated Organic Farming in Agro-Ecological Conservation”.  He emphasized the link between the trees and rain and losing Forest.  He said trees play a great role in soil and water conservation, storing carbon, and reduction of life-saving oxygen. He shared that this problem can be reduced with Organic Farming.  He cited the cycle of how a pesticide is passed on from one species or form to humans either through Vegetables or animals in some form or the other. He cited many pointers of benefits of Organic farming and mentioned that India is the largest Organic farming country followed by Nepal.

Fr. Lalit Tudu, Executive Director Caritas Nepal shared a  wonderful message in the webinar highlighting the intensity of environmental degradations and the need to conserve, preserve and protect our precious natural resources.  He called for joining hands to protect and conserve Mother Earth: our Common Home.

The open forum was moderated by Mr. Ganshyam Jetwa, HoD, Caritas India. Dr. Haridas V.R shared the Summary of the webinar and expressed a vote of thanks.