GUWAHATI, July 15 - WWF India today conducted the second National Youth Summit under its youth engagement programme �ECHO- Building Environment Conservation Heroes�.
ECHO is an empowering action model where college students ideate, design and implement conservation projects to address the most pressing environmental issue. Youth representatives from NIFT, Delhi, Midnapore College, West Bengal, Gauhati Commerce College, Assam, Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwala College, Maharashtra, and Sree Ayyappa College, Kerala presented their innovative, scalable, cost-effective and impactful project ideas which are aligned to advance the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, which is �Responsible Production and Consumption�.
The final five teams out of 55 participating teams will be presenting their projects at the National Youth Summit 2020. They will be judged by an esteemed panel of judges who are experts from the fields of management, policy, governance, education, partnerships and fundraising. The winner of the National Youth Summit 2020 will be awarded the coveted Panda trophy and provided mentoring support to continue their project activities.
The event will feature a panel discussion with international communications expert Sudhanshu Sarronwala on effective digital communication, Rohan Chakravarty, a wildlife cartoonist and conservationist on inspiring conservation through art, while Megha Gupta, an environmental writer will share her experiences and insights.
Speaking about the summit, Radhika Suri, Director of Environment Education, WWF India, said, �WWF India through its youth engagement programme ECHO, engages youth enroled in universities/colleges to ideate, design, develop and implement their conservation projects around a yearly theme to address the most pressing environmental issue. Under this programme, we identify students through partnerships with State and city universities and provide them with the training and resources they need to design and implement solutions for a specific environmental challenge.�
The National Level Youth Summit 2020 will be a platform to showcase the best projects implemented by colleges all over India. WWF-India will recognise the most impactful project at the summit, she added.
Archita Baruah Bhattacharyya, Coordinator WWF India Assam State Office, stated that Gauhati Commerce College was selected out of 10 colleges of Assam who took this ECHO programme based on their projects on SDG 12. Four core volunteers from Gauhati Commerce College represented Assam in the National Youth Summit, showcasing their project.
