Eastern Himalaya Conservation Education Programme
ATREE’s Eastern Himalaya Programme (EHP) takes an integrated approach to conservation and
natural resource management in the Eastern Himalayas of Northeast India, a part of the
Indo-Burma hotspot of biodiversity. The Program particularly focuses its efforts in the
Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Area of West Bengal, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
EHP’s target geographical area presently faces a situation where many of the traditional
institutions and practices for conserving and managing natural resources have eroded and
often face conflict with regulations imposed by the State, and where technical capabilities
of local institutions are extremely limited. With this backdrop, ATREE’s EHP has initiated
scientific and educational activities that advance biodiversity conservation, natural
resource management, sustainable development, and human resource development through capacity
building at various levels.
EHP’s Mission: To strengthen local institutions for addressing the pressing problems in
conservation and sustainable use of resources through research, action, and outreach activities,
and environmental education.
Programme Site: Darjeeling Hills
- Senchel Wildlife Sanctuary (Villages: Rampuria, Upper Chatakpur, Rambhi)
- Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary (Villages: Chamta, Koklong)
Environmental Education
ATREE-EHP’s Project team is involved in enhancing the environmental education skills
of people from diversified professional and cultural background.
Some of ATREE EHP’s Environmental Education activities include:
- Developing curriculum materials based on local biodiversity and environmental issues including development of a syllabus on environmental education for school and college level students
- Creating awareness on the importance of environmental education among school administrators and capacity building of school teachers so they can implement environmental education activities on a daily basis as part of their curriculum
- Building awareness of parents on environmental issues and solutions so that can answer their children’s queries, practice good environmental stewardship in their homes, and answer their children’s queries
- Organizing courses on conservation biology, nature camps and workshops
- Promoting the importance of management and segregation of waste
- Environmental campaigns including ‘No Plastic’ and ‘No Firecracker’ initiatives
- Training on sustainable extraction of ecosystem goods and services
- Providing support to field based activities
- Capacity building of forest-dwelling communities
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