From September 18th to 20th, The Pendeba Society along with other awardee organizations attended a three-day experience sharing workshop in Chengdu featuring keynote dialogue, interactive workshops, free discussions and a field tour.
Through the workshop, The Pendeba Society was able to have in-depth conversations with other awardees and learn from each other. Among the awardees we have met representatives from government agencies such as Center for Environmental Education and Communications of Beijing and Guizhou Province, and Management Bureaus of Gaoligongshan and Hanzhong Crested Ibis National Nature Preserves; local NGOs like Chengdu Bird Watching Society and WWF Chengdu Office, and a student organization from Peking University. We also had opportunities to engage in comprehensive dialogues and talks with well-known experts and practitioners in the fields of environmental conservation, community development and other cross-discipline subjects including Mr. CHEN Taiyong, China Country Director of Heifer International, Mr. LI Shengzhi, Field Projects Director of the Shan Shui Conservation Centre, and Dr. HU Baijing, Director of Institute of Public Communication at Renmin Univeristy, and so on.
During the keynote dialogue and interactive workshop sessions, we had raised topics on new trends towards environmental policies on western China’s conservation efforts, and participated in sincere discussions about community change, philanthropy industry chain, environmental communication and other pertinent skills training on wildlife photography. In particular, on the day of 20th escorted by project officers from WWF Chengdu Office and Chengdu Urban Rivers Association, we did a field visit to their demonstration project site in Anlong Village of Chengdu’s Pi County, where we observed and studied how the two organizations helped the village conserve their water source and wetlands, as well as promoting eco-agriculture business within the village. In the end of the visit, all the awardee organizations also shared their learning experiences and their project progress as well.
The Pendeba Society was very appreciative of Vale Company and Corporate Citizenship in Action for organizing such a great event, which will be of much benefit to the implementation of the current Vale Award Project as well as our future conservation and development work in QNNP. After the event, two representatives from Vale Award Committee will visit our project sites in QNNP, and we are sure that they will be very much satisfied with our work and efforts in preserving environment and promoting lasting livelihoods in the region.