Tag: L2L

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Event

UNEP – Nature Based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience

We are happy to announce that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR) will be extending the course on ‘Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience’, hosted on the SDG Academy/edX platform, thanks to support from the European Union.

Join our learning community of nearly 50,000 participants from 192+ countries. Everyone is invited to join our course, regardless of background.

Here are two reasons why our course is different:
1. The course provides content that is easy to follow, educational, interactive, and entertaining; in contrast to the typical lecture style structure of online courses.
2. Course instructors cover each topic in simple terms while providing real-life examples, animations, 360 virtual reality videos, and even a few surprises!

Why sign up for this course:
1. Receive a UNEP course certificate upon course completion
2. Choose to take the course in 8 languages (English, French, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Brazilian-Portuguese and Indonesian)
3. Meet & interact with environmental experts and practitioners
4. Access 6 hours of free learning materials, with exclusive interviews with world leaders
5. Join a growing community of practice on Nature-based Solutions and expand your professional network
6. Learn how to make a difference!

Registration Closed

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.apsccglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/General-Flyer__NbsMOOC.pdf” title=”General Flyer__NbsMOOC”]

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Activity

Pollution Prevention, Topsoil Ecology & Ecosystem Restoration, for Soil Sustenance and Organic Food Production

According to FAO, soil is a natural body consisting of layers (soil horizons) that are composed of weathered mineral materials, organic material, air and water, forming a natural medium for the growth of plants.  It is an essential component of ‘Land’ and ‘Eco-systems’ encompassing vegetation, water and climate in the case of land, whereas social and economic considerations including land parts in the case of ecosystems. The word ‘soil’ is also known as ‘dirt’, ‘waste’ or ‘earth’.

Topsoil has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and it is where most of the ‘Earth’s Biological Soil Activity’ occurs.  Soil organisms are categorized into microbiota, mesobiota, and macrofauna, which include species such as earthworms, millipedes, centipedes, bees, coleoptera (adults and larvae), isopoda, spiders, slugs, snails, termites, ants, dermaptera, larvae of Lepidoptera and larvae of Diptera, etc. The stability of the soil food web increases with an increasing number of organism interactions. Soil macrofauna’s biological activities regulate significantly soil processes and soil fertility.

To overcome the challenges caused by anthropogenic activities and to bring about a change towards restoring the soil ecology, a students and public centered program titled ‘Pollution Prevention, Topsoil Ecology & Ecosystem Restoration, for Soil Sustenance and Organic Food Production’, was conceptualized. In reaching out to millions, to bring out the ‘Transformative Change’ for common good, the consortia of organizations: Pondicherry University; Government of Puducherry – Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Department of Wildlife and Forest; Directorate of School Education; and the Association for Promoting Sustainability in Campuses and Communities (APSCC) as the lead organization (official partner of UN FAO-Global Soil Partnership) have joined hands for this need of the hour initiative on soil sustainability.

For more details, download the concept note here: Topsoil Ecology Restoration

To become part of the network, complete google form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSejr1sHiaINpZ3K8-QLtWjNvYvqInfJo70GQ8tWGsvzXa98_w/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1

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Projects Resources

Training and Capacity Building for the Compliance of ‘Green Protocol’ @Puducherry – Regenerative Agriculture

‘Training and Capacity Building for the Compliance of “Green Protocol” @ Puducherry’, was provided to the Post Graduate Students of Université Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France along with the students& researchers of Pondicherry University (Central University) & Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (Central School). In this program activities, special preference was given to water-food-energy-biodiversity nexus, resource recovery, conservation, and entrepreneurship (startups & green business ideas) – encompassing ‘regenerative agriculture’. ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ is an integrated soil conservation approach primarily focusing on the topsoil regeneration by re-establishing the ecology of soil biodiversity, thereby increasing the readily available plant nutrients and water-holding capacity, and strengthening the water cycle, ecosystem services, complex food chain, and bio-sequestration, ultimately forming the base for resilience to climate change. The purpose of this training and capacity building was to provide a roadmap with background and a broad conceptual framework to plan and implement ‘green campus’ strategies for sustainability and/or to kick start similar strategies in Universities/Colleges/Schools across the globe, for the compliance of ‘Green Protocol’.

The ‘Activity Report (Pictorial)’ of the same was released by the Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor Gurmeet Singh, in the presence of  Thiru P. Dhanabal, Chief Judge & Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Puducherry; Thiru L. Robert Kennedy Ramesh, Principal Sub-Judge & Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Puducherry; Prof K.V. Devi Prasad, Pondicherry University; Aravazhi Irissappane, Director; Eminent Professors Dr. G. Krishnamoorthy, San DiegoState University, California, USA & Dr. Stephanos Stephanides, University of Cyprus, along with the Convener – Dr. Golda A. Edwin Executive Director, APSCC and Dr. M. Nandhivarman, Secretary-General, APSCC.

This pictorial document in below link is a summary of the various tasks and activities performed in the training and capacity building program.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.apsccglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Regenerative-Agriculture-Activity-Report-Pictorial-2020-Revised-Final1.pdf” title=”Regenerative-Agriculture-Activity-Report-Pictorial-2020-Revised-Final(1)”]
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Event

Ready, Set, Plant!

APSCC had the privilege of being invited as a chief guest for a significant tree planting event held at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Government Higher Secondary School in Kirumampakkam. The event, presided over by Mr. M. Kandaswamy, the esteemed minister for Pollution Control, Science, Technology, and Environment of the Government of Puducherry, saw the active participation of student and staff volunteers who collectively planted hundreds of native tree saplings. APSCC’s presence at the event emphasized its commitment to environmental conservation and sustainability, inspiring the school community to take concrete steps towards a greener and healthier future.

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Activity

A visit to the IFP Herbarium

APSCC organized a students study visit to the Herbarium of French Institute of Pondicherry. The Herbarium, popularly known as HIFP was established in 1956 by Pierre Legris, an engineer from the Forestry commission of France. Since then, the collections have grown as a result of work by successive Researchers and students, as well as through the acquisition of other collections. Major contributors of the Herbarium include Meher-Homji, (between 1960 and 1981), G. Thanikaimani, Palynologist (1960-1986), Blasco (1962-1978), Shankaranarayan (1957-1959), Balasubramanian (1971-1979), Seetharam (1977-1981), Suresh (1980-1981), Jean-Pierre Pascal (1974-1994). B.R. Ramesh (1982 onwards), N. Ayyappan (2005 onwards). Computer cataloguing of HIFP began in 1998. Plant specimens have been added periodically to the collection by the staff and the herbarium is maintained with the assistance S. Aravajy and N. Barathan, and cataloguing was handled by S. Ramalingam; initially it was entered in Excel then transferred to Access database. In 2010, the herbarium database was transferred in to the open source Pl@ntNote software and published on the Institute’s World Wide Web site with the support of Pl@ntNet project. Subsequently web site was upgraded with improved searching of specimen records and simple mapping capabilities. Recently, the specimens were moved out of the old wooden cases and into modern steel ones.

HIFP houses large number of collections from the Western Ghats, especially for tree species, the other parts of India and also from different parts of the globe, which were received from different herbaria as a gift or on exchange basis. The herbarium presently contains over 24,000 specimens belonging to 268 families and 4659 species. Please visit the http://ifp.plantnet-project.org/ for more details.