Combatting Climate Change

Climate change poses a big threat to our world. What are we doing to make things right? The UN climate conference will take place in a few weeks, and already representatives argue that both developed and developing countries need to act fast. Climate change can increase the risk of a shortage of resources, mass migration, and civil conflict, according to The International Institute of Strategic Studies. According to The Watchdog, emissions have risen 5% since 2008 – China and India accounting for most of the rise as well as some developed countries.

"An environment conscious nation and a prosperous Sri Lanka with a high level of resilience to global climate change" this is the vision of the Climate Change Secretariat of Sri Lanka.

We consider environmental sustainability a cross-cutting issue to be integrated into all of our activities. Based on community interest, the following initiatives have been developed with a specific environmental focus:

Here in Sewalanka we are trying our best to reduce the impact through awareness raising programmes, and workshops conducted for village-level members to our own staff members. We even include environmental strategies that have minimal impact/reduce the impact of climate change in our projects.

Recently a four-day residential workshop on, “Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction for Sustainable Community Development” was held at Islander Centre for our Sewalanka Environmental and Disaster Risk Reduction Focal Points representing the North, South, East, and the Central Province regions. The workshop was conducted by, Mr. Sohel Khan – Climate Change and Disaster Management Advisor of CHF. Participants had two days of class-room work with a few practical sessions and the final two days were spent on the field. During their field work – they visited the local community based organisations and explained what climate change is and its impact on earth and our daily lives and the near future. The participants also shared their newly learnt knowledge of various tools such as; seasonal calendar, historical timeline, hazard mapping, and a vulnerability matrix with the community members The workshop was funded by CIDA with technical support from CHF.

For more information about Sewalanka's environment work, please contact environment@sewalanka.org or visit our newsletter page to see recent articles about our work.

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