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WMBD Launching Event: WINGS PDF Print E-mail

WINGS

Click here to view the trailer to PRELUDE - the event before WINGS.

a magical and poignant artistic creation to celebrate the launch of the World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD)

At Ol Ari Nyiro, Laikipia Nature Conservancy

9th April 2006

an initiative of the Great Rift Valley Trust

in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme and the Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS) and the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA).

 

In the heart of Africa, on the edge of the Great Rift Valley, Kuki Gallmann, the Great Rift Valley Trust and The Gallmann Memorial Foundation have joined hands with the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi and the Convention on Migratory Species in Bonn to help give migratory birds the attention they desperately need.

 From the wonders of flight to the beauty and magic of bird migration we will come together to signal a new beginning - in the way migratory birds are (to be) perceived and how people, cultures and nations can (and should) come together to help preserve and protect our common natural heritage.
The planned international seminar at UNEP focused on the "environmental dimension of avian influenza" in addition to the international and impressive artistic plans for WINGS - will produce a "show" which will help give a much needed impulse to the world.

In a time in which migratory birds are unfairly being portrayed as the sole harbingers of death and disease a few key individuals, artists and organizations have decided to come together to try to counter this negative publicity with both scientific evidence and art.

This will be achieved with an inspiring world class artistic event to be presented to opinion leaders and policy makers from all fields and broadcast world wide, launching the first ever World Migratory Bird Day.

Inspired by this great event and from this weekend onwards, world attention should turn to the wonders of bird migration, on the same weekend in April each year to remind and inspire across borders and continents - the peoples of the world.

The United Nations and its Environmental Programme (UNEP), Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and last but not least African Eurasian Waterbirds Agreement and many other organizations tied to it represent the tangible political frameworks or bridges through which the much needed international cooperation for the protection of the environment and specifically migratory animals and birds can take place and is already being facilitated.

  • THE PROGRAMME OF WINGS (available here soon)