This years Kate Stokes Memorial Award has been granted to the Spot-billed Pelican Conservation team, ECO-V, from Sri Lanka. One of the issues highlighted by the team is a lack of knowledge about biological diversity and the importance of conservation work in and around the villages where the team is conducting their research. This is one of the biggest challenges in Sri Lanka in protecting the environment.

ECO-V has been trying to address this issue in their study areas for quite some time. Their mission is to raise the environmental consciousness amongst individuals in Sri Lanka and, through their ‘Friends of Pelicans’ program, they have mobilized a small group of 20 village youth in Udawalawa who are working part-time as tour guides and naturalists in the Udawalave National Park.

With support from the CLP through the Kate Stokes Memorial Award, their next step is to provide more formal training for this group. There is currently no such environmental conservation training course available for youth in Sri Lanka that focuses on practical and achievable solutions to environmental problems at a local level. Blending practical and theoretical modules, the six-day residential training course is a great opportunity to empower these youngsters at the village level and an important first step in ECO-V’s long-term goal of establishing a formal training centre for future conservationists.