Education and outreach
While some information on coastal and marine resources and ecosystems exists, only a very small percentage of this is translated into effective inputs for conservation and management. We have attempted to translate our research findings into appropriate management tools and as sources for information that will help formulate appropriate policies.
Policy Brief : Sea Walls
Policy Brief: Sand Dunes
Policy Brief: Bioshields
Outreach for children: Members of Dakshin have undertaken collaborations to produce high quality educational material for children. Though ecosystems like mangroves, coral reefs and sea-grass beds are being recognised as important coastal ecosystems, sand dunes do not get adequate attention and their role in stabilising the coastline is mostly overlooked. In collaboration with Handesign, a group of designers and artists, we produced an activity book for school children - Sand in my Hands! The book is currently in English and is being translated and reproduced in other languages.
Sand in my Hands! An activity guide for children. Click For a Copy
Turtle Story (Children’s story – Translated into Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, Oriya
Protocol for monitoring nearshore ecosystems: A first step to understanding changes to the shoreline and its faunal components is identifying a set of indicative parameters and monitoring them on a long-term basis. While there is extensive literature on monitoring protocols and sampling methods, most of them are in reports and journals that are not readily accessible to managers. We designed a protocol that would help resource managers and future researchers to monitor sandy beaches and other coastal intertidal regions.
Berlie, T., N. Namboothri, A. Mohan and K. Shanker. 2008. A protocol for ecological monitoring of sandy beaches and intertidal fauna on the Indian coast. UNDP/UNTRS, Chennai and ATREE, Bangalore, India. 37 p.
Namboothri, N., D. Subramanian, B. Muthuraman, A. Sridhar, S. Rodriguez and K. Shanker. 2008. Beyond the Tsunami: Coastal Sand Dunes of Tamil Nadu, India- An Overview.UNDP/UNTRS, Chennai and ATREE, Bangalore, India. p 56.
Field Guide on Fishes of Tamil Nadu: As part of the Post-Tsunami Environment Initiative, our team members initiated studies to characterise fisheries along the Tamil Nadu coast. We inventorised the fish encountered in various gear along the Tamil Nadu coast. This includes more than 520 species of fin fishes, more than twenty of which are new records to Indian waters and one species which is new to science. A field guide for identifying these fish in the field was developed.
