Initiatives made to empower youth-led green entrepreneurship

Senior Advisor to President on Climate Change Ruwan Wijewardene with stakeholders at the meeting

Initiatives are being made by the Presidential Secretariat to develop a road map to deploy youth as ‘green entrepreneurs’ for mangrove development and restoration.

According to a government press release, Senior Advisor to President on Climate Change Ruwan Wijewardene recently convened a meeting with the stakeholders to initiate the development of the road map for the Green Entrepreneurship programme.

At the meeting, iLEAD International Academy Managing Director Ravi Pratap Singh made a detailed presentation on the green entrepreneurship concept, design of the programme and a proposed way forward.  

The plan includes development of entrepreneurship around mangrove and other ecosystem services-based products. 

Green entrepreneurs would be deployed on areas such as zero-emission-based water and land-transport system in and around mangroves, use of biomimicry-based product innovations, use of M-Sand (manufactured sand) 
and shrimp farming.

Singh expressed his confidence in mobilising more than 6,500 such youth along the entire coastline of Sri Lanka under the programme, according to the press release.

The stakeholders present at the meeting included representatives from the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry, National Task Force on Mangroves, Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs, Coast Conservation and Coastal Resources Management, Departments of Wildlife and Forest Conservation, Marine Environment Protection Authority and Aide et Action International. 

The meeting is to be followed by a Big Lunch to bring together national and international stakeholders in the aim of generating more action ideas for the green entrepreneurship for mangroves concept. 

The ideas at the meeting are to be synthesised in a follow up multi-stakeholder workshop (Speaking Common Language), convened by CIFOR-ICRAF to develop a detailed action plan.