The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

World Wetlands Day 2005 -- Marshall Islands

In the Marshall Islands, our delegation of four people from the Ministry of Education, Marine Resources Authority and Environmental Protection Authority went to Jaluit Atoll, a designated RAMSAR Site in the Marshall Islands. We made a 10 minutes power point presentation on the Jaluit Atoll Environment Resources Management Plan to the local council and the people who came to observed the meeting. There were over sixty adults who were at the meeting including the councilmen and women.Lots of questions came from the audience.

Later in the afternoon we conducted a science contest among the seven elementary schools in the atoll. . There were three students from each school that participated in the contest includingthe head teacher. Two types of prizes were given out: One for best students who had most number of rights in answering the questions from the judges. The other type of prize was awarded to the best arts (picutures) from the schools. We gave three prizes and each total of $100.00 for 1st prizes; $75.00 for 2nd prizes; $50.00 for the 3rd prizes.

The school contest was first of its kind and many of the parents and teachers asked that we hold such contest every year.

-- John Bungitak [eparmi@ntamar.net]

Contest audience

Winning students with teachers and contest judges

"There's wealth in wetland diversity
- don't lose it!"

For further information about World Wetlands Day or the 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 1 March 2005, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.