The Ramsar Convention Secretariat at the "Fête du developpement durable" in Geneva…
Promoting sustainable development in Geneva
On
Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th June 2007, the beautiful Botanic Garden of
Geneva, Switzerland, hosted for the first time the very well known sustainable
development festival (Fête du developpement durable). The
6th edition of this very much appreciated event offered two full days
of debates, concerts, artistic interventions and an incredibly lively
atmosphere bringing together individuals and local, regional and international
organizations involved in the promotion of sustainable development and
nature conservation. Again this year, the Ramsar Convention Secretariat
was present together with the World Conservation Union (IUCN) amongst
more than 60 stands focused on the themes of biodiversity, renewable energies,
climate change, social responsibility, organic food, recycling, etc. At
the Ramsar and IUCN stand the volunteers provided information and distributed
brochures, stickers, and leaflets about the importance of wetlands and
biodiversity, their functions and values, the different approaches in
Europe and in other regions worldwide, threats and finally future goals.
Besides that, they also interacted with visitors "testing" their knowledge through the Ramsar/IUCN poster quiz on the Convention's activities, biodiversity, and protected areas in Switzerland. All of them enjoyed this friendly approach and the visitors' bravery was always awarded with nice gadgets.
Overall throughout the weekend we could estimate that an average of 500 people visited the stand -- all of them with different backgrounds and interests; children and adults, professionals and non-professionals, people from the permanent missions to the UN and NGOs, colleagues and friends, Geneva citizens and visitors from around the corner and far away.
This very fruitful and successful initiative raised awareness of environmental issues and provided to the public concrete examples, tips and alternatives for leaving a lighter footprint and promoting sustainable development in the name of the environment, through little changes that each of us could make in our daily life.
The Ramsar Convention is looking forward to the next edition in June 2008!
--
Mila Llorens, Catherine Loetscher, Adrian Ruiz Carvajal,
Pragati Tuladhar, Monica Zavagli
The most assiduous volunteers at the stand: Mila Llorens and Monica
Zavagli for the Ramsar Secretariat and Katharine Cross (IUCN)
The little kids and the World Wetlands' Day hat from the Pakistan Wetlands
Programme: a real success on such a hot weekend!
In the back: visitors involved in the Ramsar/IUCN quiz. Front: Adrián
Ruiz-Carvajal providing information on the Ramsar convention.
Interested visitors at the stand
With the heat produced by solar-reflection panels you can cook pop corn!
Educating children on recycling through games….
Interactive game to weight one's annual garbage production.
Mila, Monica, and Pragati
For
further information about the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, please contact
the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Rue Mauverney 28,
CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169,
e-mail 
).
Posted 22 June 2007, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.
