As usual, like the international community, we celebrated, on May 11, 2019, the World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD 2019).
Ile aux oiseaux outing
This day is a bi-annual awareness campaign highlighting the need to conserve migratory birds and their habitats. It is global in scope and an effective tool for raising awareness of threats to migratory birds, their ecological importance and the need for international cooperation for their conservation.
For this year’s edition in Senegal, Wetlands International Africa supported the organization of a series of activities led by the Mangrove Club Network of the Saloum Delta, one of our privileged partners for Mangrove Capital Africa programme funded by the DOB Ecology and the “Waterbird Monitoring” project funded by the MAVA Foundation.
To maximize the mobilization and awareness around
this year’s theme “plastic waste: Let’s be the solution” we have joined forces with schools in Saloum to develop and implement a specific action plan. This allowed the training of the teacher-coaches of the “Mangrove Clubs” on bird identification techniques and the social mobilization around the schools of Mbam, Sokone, Foundioune and Dassilamé Serère.
Plastic waste collection
Also, about thirty students “Ambassadors of Mangrove” were entitled to an educational outing on the Ile aux oiseaux before participating in a videoconference with schools based in France, Luxembourg and Casamance. The various schools involved ended with sensitization meetings and plastic waste collection operations in their respective villages.