Introduction

Sahyadri e-news is CES-ENVIS's quarterly newsletter, covering the issues related to Western Ghats biodiversity. Western Ghats is rich in diversity of life. Due to unplanned developmental activities, its ecological resource base is under threat, with extensive destruction of natural habitats, widespread degradation of ecosystems and a growing burden of air and water pollution. Simultaneously, knowledge base of uses of biodiversity is also being eroded, with the present generation becoming increasingly alienated from the natural world.

We need to carefully plan on conserving, sustainably using and restoring the biological diversity of the Western Ghats. We also need to conserve and benefit from the knowledge of uses and the traditions of conservation of this biological diversity. Also, we must ensure that benefits flowing from our heritage of biodiversity and related folk knowledge percolate down to the people at the grass-roots.

Conservation of natural resources through sustainable ecosystem management and development is the key to our secured future. The degradation of our environment is linked to continuing problems of pollution, loss of forest, solid waste disposal, and issues related to economic productivity and national as well as ecological security. Currently, it is even more critical than ever before, for the humankind as a whole to have a clear understanding of environmental concerns and to follow sustainable development practices. Environmental issues make better sense, when one can understand them in the context of one's own cognitive sphere. Environmental education focusing on real-world contexts and issues often begins close to home, encouraging learners to forge connections and understand their immediate surroundings. The awareness, knowledge, and skills needed for these local connections and understanding provide a base for moving out into larger systems, broader issues, and a more sophisticated comprehension of causes, connections, and consequences. To realise this vision, both ecological and environmental education must become a fundamental part of the education system at all levels of education. Environmental management has gained momentum in recent years with the initiatives focussing on managing environmental hazards and preventing possible disasters. Environmental Education will help to recognise the importance of investigating the environment within the context of human influences, incorporating an examination of economics, culture, political structure, and social equity as well as natural processes and systems. The ultimate goal of environmental education is to develop an environmentally literate public. It needs to address the connection between our conception and practice of education and our relationship as human cultures to life-sustaining ecological systems. This issue bring out the current trends in ecosystem conservation, restoration and management including the hydrological and the biophysical aspects, the peoples participation and the role of non-governmental, educational and the governmental organistations and future research needs for restoration, conservation and sustainable management.