‘Vasundhara Mitra Sammelan’ i.e. Friends of the Earth Conference was organized on December 28, 2024, by
Srushtidnyan. The aim was to present its consolidated efforts of programmes and activities throughout the year 2024. The conference theme was Protecting the coexistence of People, forests and wildlife. The political
representative of the State Legislative Assembly from Devrukh region was invited to comment on the issues
raised by the conference on various ecological and sustainable livelihood factors. This was the first event
where stakeholders from various fields came together and formulated their united statement –
1. Political Representative of the State Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra State.
2. Organic farming practitioner farmers
3. Seed savers
4. Naturalist citizens, wildlife enthusiasts & photographers
5. Women millet farmers
6. Climate Ambassador school children and teachers
7. Climate Ambassadors college youth
8. Research scholars
9. Media journalists
The conference had a major part of Pannel Discussion comprising all the stakeholder’s representation. The objective was to raise and discuss the issues, concerns and solutions on local people, forests and wildlife issues in the context of climate change. A two-line statement was announced by this panel that the local community’s land and agro-ecological resources must be protected and enhanced sustainably. And the wildlife and forests must be protected to deal with the climate disasters in future. There is also first time in the history of Devrukh region, that Srushtidnyan’s stakeholder people from various fields of ecological sustainability were publicly recognized for their work by felicitating with ‘Friends of the Earth’ awards.
