E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, AUG 05 -

Youth are the key target audience and communicators of environmental problems ongoing in their communities, including climate change. Keeping this in mind, International Climate Champions Network-Nepal (ICCN-N) in coordination with British Council Nepal organised a national conference on “Rural Urban Connection” here on Thursday.

Around 200 youth from different rural parts of the country came together to share a common platform and discuss different environment issues like deforestation, waste management, pollution and climate change.

Speaking at the programme, former Environment Minister Ganesh Sah stressed for creating awareness among the rural populations about their environment and help communicate climate change among local communities to mitigate its impacts and adapt to the ongoing changes. “We are facing grave consequences of climate change and we must be self-reliable since efforts to adapt to these changes should come from us.”  At the programme, 10 short film series titled “From the Himalaya to the Bay of Bengal”, produced by 10 young climate champions from Nepal and Bangladesh, British Council and Wild Eye Entertainment in collaboration were premiered. The series of the short films is about climate change and its impacts on the people of both the countries that aims at raising crucial questions about what is happening around and at the same time urges the next generation to wake up and protect their future.

British Council Country Director Robert Monro highlighted the need of participatory rural appraisal tool in the communities to help identify the environment problems and develop programmes for community development from the grass root level by youth.

The national conference was organised as part of the RUC programme that was formally launched on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5 this year. The programme aims to aware, engage and involve youths particularly those from remote parts of the country who are witnesses to various vulnerabilities caused by local climatic changes.

Around 200 youth aged 17-25 years are selected as climate messengers, who will work in their local communities in creating awareness, developing initiatives to mitigate and adapt the negative impacts caused by climate change.

Posted on: 2011-08-05 12:02

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