Context

• Recently, World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF)-India State unit has joined hands with the Society for Odonate Studies(SOS) and Thumbi Puranam for the first-ever State Dragonfly Festival in Kerala called Thumbi Mahotsavam 2020.

• Mascot: ‘Pantalu’ is the official mascot of the festival.

Key Details

• State Dragonfly festival is a part of a national dragonfly festival being organised by the WWF India, Bombay Natural History Society & Indian Dragonfly Society.

• It is organised in association with the National Biodiversity Board, UNEP, UNDP and IUCN – Centre for Environment Conservation.

Back to Basics

• Dragonfly is an aerial predator insect most commonly found near freshwater habitats throughout most of the world. They act as important bio-indicators of the ecological health of an area as they feed on mosquitoes and other insects that are vectors to life-threatening diseases like Malaria and Dengue.

About World Wide Fund for Nature 

• Precursor organisation was the Conservation Foundation. Its original name was World Wildlife Fund.
• It is located in Gland, Switzerland.
• Aims to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth.
• Works in the areas of climate, food, forests, fresh water, oceans and wildlife primarily.
• In species conservation, they focus on tigers, elephants, gorillas, giant pandas, sea turtles, polar bears, rhinos and whales.
• Campaigns launched by WWF include Earth Hour and Debt-for-Nature Swap.
• The famous ‘Living Planet Report’ (started in 1998) is published by the WWF every two yearin which the health of the planet and the impact of human activities on nature are talked about.
• It is based on the Living Planet Index and the calculations of ecological footprints.

About Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)

• The Marine Stewardship Council(MSC) is an independent non-profit organization which sets a standard for sustainable fishing.
• The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a global nonprofit organization established to protect the last major food resource that is truly wild: seafood.
• The MSC works with fisheries, grocery stores, restaurants, and other companies to change the way the oceans are fished, address food fraud, and make it simple for consumers to purchase sustainable, traceable, wild seafood.
• The Marine Stewardship Council is a program for wild fisheries and does not include aquaculture
• Clam fishery in the Ashtamudi estuary in Kolam district of Kerala is the first in India to receive Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. It has become the third in Asia to receive this recognition.

About Ashtamudi estuary

• A Ramsar Wetland of international importance and second largest in Kerala.

About Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)

• An independent non-profit organisation and labelling organization that establishes protocol on farmed seafood while ensuring sustainable aquaculture.
• Provides sustainable and responsible aquaculture producers with a stringent certification and labelling scheme guaranteeing to consumers that the seafood they are purchasing is sustainable for the environment, and socially responsible.
• Founded in 2010 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH).
• Their mission is “[to] transform aquaculture towards environmental sustainability and social responsibility using efficient market mechanisms that create value across the chain.
• The ASC has standards for the 12 following species: abalone, bivalves(clams, mussels, oysters and scallops), freshwater trout, pangasius, salmon, seriola and cobia, shrimp, and tilapia.

About Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

• International nonprofit, multistakeholder organization established in 1993 that claims to promote responsible management of the world’s forests.
• An example of a market-based certification program used as a transnational environmental policy.
• a global forest certification system established for forests and forest products; from the perspective of the WWF this voluntary mechanism can be regarded as one of the more interesting initiatives of the last decade to promote better forest management.

Source: Deccanherald & WikiPedia