Climate change issues discussed on a boat

A group of young volunteers, to combat climate change at grass roots level plan a journey along the Kelani River educating the communities of adaptation and mitigation strategies.

The journey organised by the Eco Friendly Volunteers (ECO-V) will take place from August 15 to September 1 starting from Sri Pada mountain and ending at Wattala where the Kelani River meets the sea.

The ECO V will be selecting a group of 20 youth from all nine provinces of the country and invites young environment enthusiasts to forward their applications to join the journey. "Thus the Project is supported by the Journeys for Climate Justice, a Melbourne-based environment organisation and we expect to select youth of all communities and social levels," said Kanchana Weerakoon Director of the ECO-V.

The objective of the project would be to protect the biodiversity of one of Sri Lanka's longest rivers by enhancing awareness among the communities who are exploiting it for their livelihoods. The ECO V plans to use this opportunity as an advocacy campaign to present the evidence to policymakers in order to make the decisions on environmental conservation and climate change adoption.

The ECO V targets communities live along Kelani River, people in Sri Lanka and later the Asia_Pacific region as a post-project activity. The whole travel will be done as segments with stop-overs by bus, push bicycles and by foot at pre determined places. Once the journey starts several awareness workshops for the respective communities with presentations, film shows and discussions will be organised at seven different stations where the trekkers will be camping overnight.

The tree planting campaigns at which 100 trees will be planted at each stop will be organised at those stations with the support of local governmental agencies. Energy saving bulbs and water saving tips will be introduced at the same stations where local environmental groups can continue promoting them even after.

Final day gathering will be held at Kelaniya Temple where the experienced will be sharing with the government officers, and various stakeholders.

All the participants and organisers will maintain an environmental friendly lifestyle during the river campaign and the carbon footprint will be minimized. Local environmental groups will be empowered by sharing information.

A community action plan and a final report of the outputs will be prepared by the youth group with the support of ECO-V and will be presented to the higher government authorities. Each youth traveller should initiate a project related to climate change issues at local level and the best project will be selected and rewarded. According to Kanchana Weerakoon necessary guidance and support will be given by ECO-V to the travellers.