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Deadline: 30-Jun-23
Submissions are now open for the Rural Futures Fellowship, an immersive 18-month practical training programme during which 20 young people are introduced to the philosophy, practice and science of rewilding, regenerative agriculture and community-led conservation practices.
Through the Fellowship, the Balipara Foundation aims to build a network of young people with the skills and the capacities to expand rewilding in the region at the exponential scale needed to reverse systemic ecological degradation in the Eastern Himalayas.
The fellowship desires rewilding and revegetation. To achieve this, while in the field, the role of fellows would be to engage in community interaction, mobilisation of resources, building understanding of ground reality, challenges and linkages between nature and economy. In the process of their work they are expected to create a socio-ecological and economic impact.
The journey of the fellows will be divided across six semesters wherein they will simultaneously go through a technical and personal transformational journey. The technical transformational journey will entail:
- Landscape Immersion
- Indigenous knowledge and research
- Journey towards rewilding
- System Immersion
- Launching entrepreneurial journey and
- Entrepreneurial establishment
Benefits
- RuFu fellowship will equip fellows with leadership qualities along with training them on restoration of land through the approach of agro-forestry. They will learn the qualities required for making impactful strategies for working with land, environment and conservation, and understand social interdependency and collaborative learning.
- They will be trained as social entrepreneurs in the domain of conservation and management. Fellows will be working with diverse stakeholders, from local governments / civil service to community-based organizations, interacting with communities to understand their culture and traditional methods of conservation. In this process they will build an understanding of the Eastern Himalayan landscape which will help them in securing grants of rewilding in the last semester of their course.
- During the programme they will learn key skills from subject matter experts and be mentored in the practicalities of conservation and restoration work on the ground by the Balipara Foundation’s team of scientists and land restoration and community leaders.
Why join RuFu Fellowship?
- RuFu fellowship enables young people to tap into rewilding and sustainability based entrepreneurship to revitalize communities, local economies and landscapes. Their personal journey will cultivate their awareness and resilience as future practitioners, through the dimensions of self, society, systems and ecosystems to find a meaningful connection in their entrepreneurial journey.
- The skill building will be a learning on key technical skills and knowledge that will help the fellows to manage rewilding and sustainable agroforestry in collaboration with local communities as well as manage one’s own business or organization. Fellows will have hands on opportunities to demonstrate their skills they learn under the guidance of the Balipara Foundation team and as they pilot their own project with a 10-hectare rewilding project in their community.
Fellows are Expected
In the personal transformational journey fellows are expected to:
- Build self-consciousness
- Understand social interdependencies
- Decode systemic change
- Analyse ecosystems
- Decode entrepreneurial mindset
- Entrepreneurial setup
Eligibility Criteria
- Candidates from India, Nepal and Bangladesh are requested to apply. The 20 selected fellows will be gender-balanced representing gender-diversity.
- An ideal Fellow should be aspiring, both practically and intellectually, towards environmental sustainability.
- Highly motivated fellows who are ready for working in the field, in remote rural areas, and connecting with communities and social construction of landscapes.
- An interest in community-led conservation and management.
- Anybody who has successfully completed 12 years of schooling and is aged between 21-35 can apply.
- Women & gender-diverse people – an equal weightage for women and gender-diverse aspirants who apply to the fellowship.
- Lower socioeconomic status – young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in both urban and rural communities are prioritized.
For more information, visit Balipara Foundation.