Wilderness Conservation Exchange(WCE)
-Susan Sharma
Our Club's Journey over the course of time
The Journey has been inspiring
1.Our portal is now recognized by major NGOs and Govt Institutions in India as a serious community of nature lovers. We have taken serious discussion on conservation out of the seminar circuit and achieved involvement/participation of the common man.
2. We have managed drawing a distinction between wildlife conservation and animal rights
3. Participation in our interactive features are slowly picking up
4. As compared to talking to the 'converted' IWc encourages sharing of information and thoughts from anyone who is vaguely interested in nature. We act as a link between the expert and the common man.
5.Analysis of the participation in our quiz programs has indicated gradual increase in interest in the members.
6. Our growth has so far been organic, in response to member feedback. Currently we are poised to implement an interactive forum
7. The WCE project is also conceived based on member feedbcak, which was further refined based on a questionaire survey among members.
WCE will be our flagship program, the first on ground, combining online and offline capabilities.
There are many volunteering opportunities all over India and many of our Club members have been writing in asking for volunteering opportunities. If the Club creates an exchange connecting Institutions needing Volunteers with potential volunteers, we can
fulfil a long felt need.
That is how the project "Wilderness Conservation Exchange" was born. We have entered the business plan for the same in a Business Plan Challenge Round initiated by SWF (Switzerland Wildlife Fund). SWF, are seeking to draw attention to the health of Tropical
Forests by supporting Initiatives that will help conserve Tropical Forests. Among other parameters, a business/action plan participating in the Challenge will be shortlisted based on the number of Votes a Plan garners.
The voting for the WCE project is now over. Our project tops the start-up category with 183 votes. There are 21 projects short listed under this category. One winner selected out of these will be announced on December 17, 2012. The winner will receive in
kind support from WWF-Switzerland.