Coastwatching on International Day for Biological Diversity (22/05/07)

Good afternoon everyone:

Today is International Day for Biological Diversity, a key focal point in the year particularly for many working in conservation.

Our NGO CEPA Focal Point for Ireland, Karen Dubsky, has written about the launching today of an initiative of the NGO Coastwatch that may be of interest and she would welcome contact from other CEPA list members that might be interested in extending their initiative to other areas.

They are carrying out a coastal biodiversity survey which will run in Ireland over the next month and is also being tested out in Spain, Germany and Italy. The initiative encourages people living around the coast or visiting them to help survey the biodiversity on the coast using a questionnaire which can be downloaded from their web site here http://www.coastwatch.org/.

In advance of the launch, Coastwatch has been running a series of biodiversity survey training sessions around the country where they help local stakeholders and local media to learn to identify and then report back on a small number of coastal organisms - some common and some rare along the rocky shores, estuaries and bays. The trainees include a mix of school teacher, artists, fishermen, farmers, schoolchildren etc.

The questionnaire has 3 functions:

You can contact Karen for further information by email - kdubsky@coastwatch.org.

With best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat

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Sandra Hails, CEPA Programme Officer
Ramsar Convention Secretariat
Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 999 0176; Fax: +41 22 999 0169
E-mail: hails@ramsar.org
Web Site: http://ramsar.org
CEPA mini-Web site: http://ramsar.org/outreach_index.htm

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