Odisha Environment Congress
Odisha Environment Congress (OEC), first launched in the year 2010 by HDF-cDAR, Centre for Environment and Development (CED), Thiruventhapuram and Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH) has become an annual scientific event in Odisha.
The Odisha Environment Congress (OEC) is going to hold its 15th edition on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd December, 2024 at Berhampur University, Berhampur, Odisha. Started in the year 2010 as an annual scientific and civil-society event on environment, the OEC has been providing a unique opportunity to academicians, researchers, scientists, planners, policymakers, students, practitioners, community members, and civil society organizations of the state and beyond for learning, interaction and dissemination of knowledge on different themes concerning the environment. It also provides scope for publication of theme-specific and research-based articles in the proceedings which is released during the main event, besides providing an opportunity for the professionals to present their papers in various technical sessions. The themes of the previous successive editions were Environment and Water Resources (2010), Environment and Forest (2011), Environment and Energy (2012), Environment and Agriculture (2013), Environment and Climate Change (2014), Environment: Health and Nutrition (2015), Environment: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (2016), Environment and Sustainable River Basin Management (2016), Environment and Gandhi (1017), Environment and Mining (2018), Environment and Biodiversity (2019) Environment and Pandemic (2019), Environment and Tribes (2022) and Environment and Urbanization (2023). For the forthcoming 15th OEC, the theme has been chosen by the organizing committee as ‘Environment and Coast’.
Some key recommendations that emanated from this Congress are as follows:
- Congress feels to develop a strong policy platform in the state to address climate change mitigation and monitoring and evaluation of projects/actionable programmes in the state taking all stakeholders, such as – communities, civil societies, academic institutions, research organisations, implementing departments, international organisations and policy makers).
- Congress suggests in the state to develop a financing pathway for the programmes/activities for the good practice and future scaling up.
- There is need to develop a strong policy/regulatory mechanism for the climate governance.
- Suggestion should be rendered to the government to develop a guideline to invite proposal for actionable research/innovation programmes relating to climate change, food security and poverty reduction; and onward communicated to national and international funding agencies for implementation of programmes.
- Sufficient resource support need to be provided by the government for community based disaster preparedness and responses.
- The Congress unanimously recommends developing of a separate Children Environment Congress to give enough space for the innovations lies with the school children and sufficient technical and knowledge inputs for the implementation of eco-club activities in their respective schools.
- Further, Congress stressed to develop similar mechanism to widespread goals and vision of Environment Congress at district levels for its wider impact.
- It is high time to revisit the Odisha State Climate Change Action Plan and develop a realistic and appropriate plan with policy and strong regulatory mechanisms, with adequate financial support for its future implementation.