Raintree Foundation in partnership with Srushti Conservation Foundation (SCF) is facilitating a 15-Day Certificate Course in Peoples’ Biodiversity Register (PBR) development for Masters’ students at the Fergusson College, Deccan Education Society’s Pune University’s (DESPU), Pune, as per the official press release.
The People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) is an essential participatory tool for documenting the local community’s traditional knowledge about the region’s biodiversity and human interaction with ecological systems, it added.
As per the release, a total of 27 students across multiple post-graduate specialisations including Botany, Zoology and Environmental Science are enrolled in this course. The course will include classroom sessions and on-field activity in Sakhar and Gunjawane villages in Pune, providing hands-on experience as well as course credits for the students under the National Education Policy, as mentioned in the release.
The programme started on January 1 will be continued till 15th January 2024. It will include theory sessions conducted by SCF at the Fergusson College and on-field data-collection organised by the Raintree Foundation at Sakhar and Gunjawane villages.
The course will also offer practical exposure to the students of the respective departments, helping raise their awareness towards the ground reality of biodiversity management and the importance of PBR in creating village management plans. While at its core the PBR is a document which contains comprehensive information on the locally available bio-resources, their medicinal use and traditional knowledge, it has the potential to be used to foster community stewardship for sustainable development, conservation effort and benefit-sharing.
“Documentation of traditional knowledge is critical not just for understanding the community’s generational interaction with their natural resources and heritage but is also important for ensuring greater community participation and ownership of biodiversity conservation efforts. Through this experiential educational programme in partnership with Srushti Conservation Foundation and Fergusson College, Raintree Foundation will offer practical, on-ground exposure to students interested in working in environmental conservation, while also working with community resource persons to develop documentation of local oral traditions and knowledge that are rapidly fading away,” Namita Dandekar, chief operating officer, Raintree Foundation, said.