Talking about environmental issues, especially around ideas of justice can be complex and overwhelming. The complexities of how philosophies of justice play out in reality are not always well captured through case studies or readings alone. Theatre can provide a space where cognitive understanding and emotions can come together to build embodied learning.

This workshop will focus specifically on a type of participatory theatre called ‘Forum Theatre’. Forum makes the audience an active part of theatre, creating space for the audience to raise concerns, express opinions and change the direction of the narrative. Forum offers a space to enact hypotheticals and acts like a lab to try out potential solutions to everyday problems. Forum can, and has been, used in working with communities, for policy advocacy and in education among others. Our particular focus for the workshop is on environmental educators, to add another tool for education.

A forum consists of two sections. First, actors perform a short play depicting a situation of injustice. Then, spectators become spect-actors, jumping into the situation to replace a character or act as an additional one. Spect-actors and actors work together to rectify the situation of injustice.

Forum theatre was first described as a tool by actor and sociologist Augusto Boal, who envisioned it as a tool to address the deep inequities he saw reflected in society around him. It remains a powerful way to do so, and can be an important component of a toolkit for environmental education practitioners.

Global biodiversity loss, driven largely by human-induced environmental changes, poses a significant threat to ecosystems worldwide. To effectively conserve biodiversity, it is essential to understand how they adapt to shifting environmental conditions. While many studies have examined adaptability at the level of individual species or populations, broader macroevolutionary responses across entire lineages remain underexplored.

This workshop aims to introduce participants to fundamental phylogenetic tools that can be used to map ecologically relevant traits—such as climatic niche, behaviour and cognition, or morphology—onto evolutionary trees. By tracing the patterns of changes in certain traits across a phylogeny, we can begin to quantify the evolutionary flexibility of different animal or plant lineages. Such an approach can help identify which groups or species may be more resilient or vulnerable in the face of future environmental stressors. Understanding these patterns is crucial for informing conservation priorities, especially in a rapidly changing world where the ability of animals to adapt essentially determines their survival.

Discover the art and science of nature journaling by blending creative expression with systematic observation of your surroundings. Participants can expect hands-on engagement that maximizes their curiosity and expression as they integrate words and drawings in their documentation to depict textures and patterns in nature. Through activities and guided prompts, we intend to engage participants to explore, observe, document, and learn the diverse ways to begin their own nature journal practice.

Nature Journaling can be a way of taking research and field notes as a form of inquiry. Or even a medium of conservation outreach for nature education, citizen science, or storytelling. The workshop is designed to be accessible to individuals of all skill levels, and aims to leave participants with insights on how to integrate this practice in their own work.

Looking at the nuanced structures of plants can be intimidating. But knowing what parts of a plant to look at and how can help us become more familiar with plants. Plants are grouped into families based on certain features in their leaves, flowers and fruits. By recognising these features, we can reach the plant’s family and greatly narrow down the possibilities of its identity. Some of these families will be discussed in the advanced workshop on plant identification.

So, to identify plants, let us begin by learning about the types of leaves, flowers and fruits.

Leaves, flowers and fruits - the features used to identify plants, are also seasonal and vital for plant life cycles. Studying this cyclicity (called ‘phenology’) over long periods can help us understand many things about an ecosystem, even the impacts of climate change!

In this workshop, we shall learn the basic units of morphology that can be used to identify plants - leaf, flower and fruit types. We shall go outdoors and learn to recognise the different features of plants in the field. Lastly, using our new ability to identify plants and their seasonal stages, we shall learn the ‘SeasonWatch’ method of monitoring tree phenology.

Note: This workshop (current or previous editions) is mandatory for attending the advanced workshop on plant identification.

Scientific papers serve as the primary source of information in both research and practice fields. However, approaching them can be daunting, time-consuming, and complex. Often, research papers are left out or introduced abruptly to students in their academic curricula. This leaves them with little to no guidance on how to navigate scientific literature. Consequently, many of us lack the skills to effectively read, understand, and summarize research papers.

We, the organizers of this workshop, faced similar difficulties when we were introduced to research papers. We have acquired this skill through trial, error, and practice. Hence, we are familiar with the hardships of this process and want to facilitate it for others.

This workshop is designed for individuals, particularly current students, with limited experience in reading research papers. We aim to offer a straightforward guide to enhance their paper-reading process while encouraging creativity and critical thinking. We will emphasize understanding the purpose behind referencing a paper and tailoring the reading approach accordingly, fostering an engaging and enjoyable experience. Additionally, we will cover techniques for synthesizing paper findings.

The workshop will feature a paper-reading exercise and ample discussion among participants and facilitators to effectively apply and comprehend the toolkit.

South Asia is as rich in biodiversity as it is in linguistic diversity. However, as a colonial legacy publication on natural history and conservation issues are mostly in English. It is essential to engage with the grass-roots public and relevant stakeholders (such as legislators, media persons, forest department) on conservation issues in local languages. This would help them to better understand the subject. This will also help the naturalists, conservationists and wildlife biologists to create awareness among wider sections of the public. There is a close link between language and conservation movement. Hence, it is essential to encourage students to communicate conservation science through vernacular languages.

In this workshop we will introduce students through an interactive lecture on importance of using local languages, challenges in writing and translating into local languages, aspects to consider while translating ecological concepts, importance of documenting and redeeming traditional nomenclature and coining new scientific terminologies. We also briefly discuss about the current status of nature writing in different Indian languages. As a part of this workshop, we would also ask the participant to produce a write-up in their language on the subject of their interest and give information on how and where to publish it.

Conservation careers is a less discussed topic; however, there is a need to understand the breadth and depth of it as an increasing number of students are pursuing academic degrees aligned with conservation science. Conservation careers may look fancy and glamorous for those who are not into it; therefore, a prospective student should get a thorough understanding before deciding his/her career path.

The short workshop is designed in a way to navigate prospective students into the domains of Environmental Science, Ecology, Conservation, and Sustainability Studies. The workshop will mainly focus on the following:

1. Academic journey requirements to work in the domain of ecology & conservation
2. Career paths as a student is out in the job market
3. Job market analysis with regards to multiple sectors such as Academia, Corporate, NGOs, Entrepreneurship, and Research including salary packages
4. Case studies and Pros and Cons of Conservation Careers

The workshop will involve interactive mode of teaching, discussions, Q & A, and individual activities for the students to realize their choice of career. The career will involve intensive activities such as SWOT analysis and career goal planning so that participants get an idea of their future careers.

The workshop will primarily focus on UG and PG students, but PhD students are welcome to join. The focus of the workshop is on the Indian and Asian job market.

I have conducted several such workshops earlier since 2021 in online mode. We did one in 2024 SCCS too that received a great response. The workshop will be much more effective in person mode, wherein participants can readily interact and involve in group discussions.

The workshop aims to teach the participants about iNaturalist - a citizen science biodiversity documentation platform and how it works. The participants will then be taught how to selectively screen data, set up projects, as well as export their data from iNaturalist for research or conservation projects. There will be an interactive session for participants to discuss their ideas for iNaturalist projects and how feasible they might be. We will also hold a final doubt session for any technical help that may be required by participants regarding their project or exporting iNat data.