May 5th, 2024
Written by Snehlata Nath
Keystone Wins Grant for Forest Education!
The Koningsschool Foundation, Netherlands aims to promote knowledge of the forest and forestry and its related social functions. They support projects that involve forest education to communities and youth in combination with planting trees. As the Koningsschool Foundation is closing their operations, they have given an endowment to Both ENDs, who in turn have allocated it to 6 institutions across the world. Keystone Foundation is one of the selected awardees.
In India, the fund will be used to spread knowledge about forests in high biodiversity regions across the country. Relevant organisations/individuals will be identified for mentoring and support given to grassroots initiatives with youth and children. The fund will support educative initiatives in schools/colleges, and informal methods in villages, through running field courses, enabling documentation, monitoring and other conservation initiatives.
Adivasi people, their knowledge of forests and intergenerational knowledge transfer will be given special preference. Initiatives like village elder sharing, events and talks will be supported.
Developing course/learning materials for forest education and their use will be supported. It needs to be in local languages and such that can have widespread use. Translation and creative transformation of relevant material will also be supported for various age groups.
The fund will be spent over a period of 4 years and Keystone Foundation will be coordinating and documenting the supported initiatives.
