Mission Sustainability

Established in 1993, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) is an internationally recognised non-profit organization which tackles the key causes of rural poverty by rejuvenating ecosystems and building the community's resilience to climate change. It enhances the availability of water, increase the productivity of land and agriculture, diversify livelihoods, empower women, and strengthen the health and well-being of vulnerable rural communities. Working at the grassroots, WOTR creates resilient rural communities that enjoy a fulfilling life within vibrant and sustainable ecosystems. WOTR has been working with rural communities in India for 3 decades now. It has touched the lives of over 4.95 million across 5,107 villages in 10 states of India. It has included participants from 63 countries in training and exposure programmes.

Chief Advisory

Crispino Lobo

Co-Founder & Managing Trustee, Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR)

Crispino Lobo has 34 years of engagement in tackling water challenges, environmental degradation, and the impacts of climate change on agriculture and livelihoods in rain dependant and dryland regions of rural India and internationally. He has co-founded 4 non-profits, one of which is the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), which collectively and with its partners, have impacted the lives of over 6.58 million people in 10 states in India; trained over 7,00,000 people from 27 states and 63 countries and supported development works in over 6,850 villages. He was the Program Coordinator of the large-scale, highly successful bilateral Indo-German Watershed Development Program (IGWDP) in Maharashtra and has been a member of several Advisory Committees to government at both the state and federal levels. He has contributed to setting up 2 large national public funds to promote watershed development and climate change adaptation in the country. An alumnus of Harvard University and the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Crispino has 5 academic degrees and has authored/ co-authored/ helmed 12 books besides several articles/ chapters in national and international publications/books.

Initiated in 2019 by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India along with multiple stakeholders, the echo network is a social innovation partnership with the specific focus of increasing trust between sectors, increasing the value of science for society, and instilling a sense of responsibility in everyone for our human and environmental ecosystems. It has built a 2300-member international community spanning 45 countries that connects communities, organizations, businesses, and academia to establish communities of practice that learn from each other, co-create standard solutions and iteratively enhance solutions through regular interaction and evaluation. The network has reached over 100,000 citizens through over 150 activities and 21 peer-reviewed and public articles.

Chief Advisory

Shannon B Olsson

Founder & Global Director, The Echo Network

Dr. Shannon B Olsson has travelled across four countries and three continents to dedicate herself to listening to nature's chemical conversations across India's diverse ecosystems. Her science is committed to laying the foundation for a sustainable India. As a Ph.D graduate from Cornell University, a project leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, and then a faculty member of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in India, she is an international leader who brings her unique approach of merging her science background with non-science communities in multiple countries and sectors. She is a co-PI in the Biodiversity Collaborative, and a founding member of ECOBARI (Ecosystem-based Adaptation for Resilient Incomes). She also serves through the echo network's international hub as Special Scientific Envoy to India with the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (ATV) in close collaboration with the Danish Innovation Center in India (under the auspices of the MFA and the MHER).