The three-day Second Odisha Environment Congress (OEC) celebrating the International Year of the Forest being organised by the Human Development Foundation concluded Saturday.

During the event, Minister of Forest and Environment Debi Prasad Mishra appreciated the collaborative effort to make forest a people’s issue across the State.

He gave away the Young Scientist Awards to S Swain and Piyush Kumar Mohanty besides awarding the State-level award winners in painting to Kahnu Charan Moharana and Hemanta Kumar Nayak, story writing to Somnath Behera, Gayatree Suvadrshini Panda and debate competitions to Priti Mishra and Pratyusha Behera among school and college students.

Director of HDF School of Management Haribandhu Panda summarised the deliberations of the event. The major findings in terms of challenges were dependence and livelihood security, impact of the market forces, climate change, degradation and diversion.

Among the strategies recommended to address these challenges were use of technology, augment of human resources, strengthening of community participation and institutional mechanism, creating alternative livelihoods such as eco-tourism.

PCCF PN Padhi, Director State Forestry Development Project Vimal Kumar, Babu Ambat of the CED and GN Indiresh of the RMNH also spoke on the occasion. While Dhanada Kanta Mishra of the HDF presided over the session, HDF Secretary Sudarsan Das proposed a vote of thanks.

Earlier in the morning, RV Singh presided over the technical session 8, in which the keynote address was presented by Prof Nirmal Ch Sahu of the Brahmapur University on the topic ‘Investment in Forest Capital of Odisha.’ Ajit Patnaik of the Chilika Development Authority also spoke.

The open session was chaired by State Information Commissioner Jagadanand while noted civil society personality Prof Bhagaban Prakash and Sudhir Patnaik of Samadrusti participated in the discussions. They made recommendations such as provision of a portion of MP and MLA LAD funds for forest conservation-related projects.

The Third Odisha Environment Congress will be held next year from December 20 to 22 on the theme ‘Sustainable Energy for All’ selected by the United Nations.