Harshada Gauns Selected for the Coexistence Champions’ Second Cohort

Arannya Environment Research Organisation (AERO) is pleased to share that Harshada Gauns has been selected for the second cohort of the Coexistence Champions programme by the Coexistence Consortium.

Supported through a two-year grant based at AERO, Harshada, in collaboration with Jalmesh Karapurkar, will work towards empowering, celebrating, and amplifying lived experiences of coexistence within Goa’s Khazan ecosystems.

Khazans are an integral part of Goa’s ecological and cultural heritage, representing traditional land-use systems shaped by generations of community knowledge and practices. This initiative holds particular significance for AERO, as its Community Education Centre is based in Mayem, one of Goa’s important villages associated with Khazan cultivation.

Through this initiative, AERO aims to strengthen community engagement and bring greater recognition to the people, practices, and traditional knowledge that sustain these unique ecosystems.

This selection marks an important opportunity to further AERO’s commitment to community-led conservation and to celebrate the enduring relationship between people and nature in Goa.

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