An education campaign aiming at introducing sustainable hunting practices in Mediterranean Third Countries has been conducted under the Sustainable Hunting Project. Implemented by the BirdLife Partnership in collaboration with government and non-government organizations the campaign addressed to children between 9 and 13 focused on the theme of bird conservation and hunting.
Mirey Atallah-Auge working on the campaign with Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon reported:
The education campaign comprised the development of a comprehensive manual covering bird knowledge from different perspectives such as arts, culture, agriculture and technology, conservation, migration, habitats, and bird groups and identification with special focus given to Lebanon. Stories and information were drawn from the wide network of BirdLife partners worldwide, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have
contributed to this manual. This year’s education campaign was sponsored by the EC-Life Third Countries Programme, Euroantur/DBU through SPNL and the Hans Zeidel Foundation through AFDC.
The delivery of our education component was undertaken in two ways:
In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, 11 persons were trained on the delivery of the sessions and 52 public schools were targeted all over Lebanon but mainly in the vicinity of IBAs or important hunting sites: Ehden, Tannourine, Keserwan, Baabda, Aley and Saoufar, Al Shouf,
Kfarzabad and the Bekaa, Beirut, and the Hasbaya Marjayoun area.
In order to evaluate the uptake and grasp of information by students allschools have produced a “Birds of my school” poster based on a common template that summarizes the 6 themes covered by the sessions.
We have decided to join forces with the Association for Forest Development and Conservation, who has adopted Birds as their education theme for the year 2006. In line with AFDC’s education programme, 4 trainings were delivered by the SHP staff to 130 teachers and school directors from 78 different private and public schools. This was followed up by the Rally
for Nature, where over 450 school children raced through the Al Shouf Cedar Nature Reserve, answering questions and solving games related to birds, their conservation and threats – including hunting.
On Friday 26th May, the SHP in collaboration with AFDC and the Al Shouf CedarNature Reserve, will hold the closing ceremony for this year’s education component. The event is to take place in Victoria – Ain Zhalta, the reserve’s education center from 9AM to 1PM. The event will include the
following:
1. Short presentation and summary of this year’s education activities
2. Display of the projects prepared by different schools, these
include paintings, poems, songs, theater plays, research projects and
photographs
3. Final contest of the Rally for Nature where the 4 winning teams
from the previous days will compete for the first place
4. A Nature art workshop and exhibition
The event as reported by Mirey went very well with more than 1300 participants attending the closing ceremony including a lot of children.
The Sustainable Hunting Project -SHP- is a regional initiative aiming at introducing sustainable hunting practices and economically viable alternatives in Mediterranean Third Countries: *Lebanon*, Syria, Jordan, Palestinian Authority, Egypt, *Tunisia*, Algeria and Morocco. This initiative is supported by the EC Life third countries programme with co-funding from Euronatur/DBU, the AEWA secretariat and VBN.
Source: Mirey Atallah-Auge/ Sustainable Hunting Project Manager – Lebanon Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon
Updated on 5/31/2006 5:09:39 PM.
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