A virtual talk on ‘Ecosystem Restoration’

The United Nations has dedicated 5 June as World Environment Day (WED) to create worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.

Since years we humans have been exploiting Earth’s ecosystems for various resources which has eventually led to rise in global temperatures thereby impacting lives of many.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the mirror and to reduce this damage, the United Nations have decided ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ as this year’s theme for WEB.

Ecosystem Restoration is a practise to renew & restore damaged ecosystems & habitats which has been caused by human activities.

To mark this day & create awareness & explain to common citizens about, GreenLine conducted a virtual talk on 5 June 2021 on ‘Ecosystem Restoration’& a total of 52 people attended this webinar.

Ms. Sagita Joshi, was our guest speaker for the day. Currently she is a Secretary at Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal who is incharge of project Paryavaran Shala and Devrai Afforestation project (Titwala).

Ms. Sangita Joshi explained the ‘Clean Creek Movement’ which has been carried out by PDP since the last 13 years. This movement doesn't focus on merely cleaning the creek but keeping the creek clean by preventing the waste from entering the creek in it.

She spoke about eco-restoration and gave some classic examples like the YellowStone National Park, USA & Mula-Mutha river restoration, Pune, India.

She also explained PDM’s work in the forest restoration project of Rundre forest (Titwala) where they didn’t just do afforestation but also worked on soil rejuvenation & water conservation. She emphasized on how they planted trees that are not just native but also local to that region. The participants also learned about the back work that goes behind practically restoring a land with various failures & successes on the way. The involvement of local villagers & city dwellers in the tree plantation plays an important role to create a sense of responsibility towards the forest among all. Ms. Sangita Joshi explained how their motive to inculcate a sense of ownership towards the forests & resources in the citizens was fulfilled when a fire at the site led to enquiry by many people who planted trees at the site. Along with it, the participants also learned with this practical example how the growth of flora automatically attracted fauna at that site.

All these small points encouraged the participants to take small yet mindful steps towards living consciously.

Here are some feedback from our participants:

1) Hayat Shaikh: This session was so helpful. Learned so many interesting things. Thanks for such a wonderful session.

2) Priya Rajmani Mishra: It was an informative session. I learned about the restoration of lost / gone ecological system

3) Aryan Babardesai: It was a very nice session. I learned the concept of Devrai.

You can watch the webinar on our YouTube channel.

Click on the link given below

A virtual talk on ‘Ecosystem Restoration’: https://youtu.be/KcVcJwRbdhU