With the aim of enabling school and college students to present their innovations for the conservation of biodiversity of India, a Children’s Ecological Congress (CEC5) will be conducted on December 29 and 30 at the Maria Rani Centre, Sreekariam.
Competitions in Elocution, Quiz, Cartoon, Painting and Poster-making are being organised by the State Biodiversity Board for students of upper primary, high school and higher secondary schools.
A Project Presentation competition is also being held with ‘Biodiversity in my Village’ and ‘Local Paddy Seeds and its Traditional Knowledge’ being the focal themes.
The CEC5 is being held as a side event of the first National Biodiversity Congress, scheduled to be held at Thiruvananthapuram during December 27-30.
Organised by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) in association with the various State Biodiversity Boards (SSB), the Congress is slated to be an annual event henceforth, to be conducted by a different SSB each year. It will see the participation of a wide cross-section of society including researchers, NGOS, community stakeholders, policy makers, corporates, government departments and various universities.
The theme for this year is ‘Biodiversity in Food Security’.