NCF commemorates WMBD with String Art, Beach Clean-up

NCF commemorates WMBD with String Art, Beach Clean-up

Bennett Oghifo

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) joined the rest of the world to commemorate the 2019 World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) at five locations – Lekki, Lagos; Calabar, Cross River State; Nguru, Yobe State; Omo Forest, Ogun State and Finima, Rivers State.

Its Lagos event held on Thursday 9th May, 2019 at the Kids Beach Garden, Lekki, having school pupils, teachers, environmental volunteers, conservationists, representatives of corporate organisations and press men in attendance.

Beach Clean-up, String Art and environmental education talk featured in the 2019 WMBD celebration with the theme “Protect Bird: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution.”

Participants were engaged in the clean-up of the beach to rid it of plastics, the plastics collected were separated into different categories – bottle caps, spoons, plastic bottles, plastic bags, etc.

The school pupils were engaged in String Art. An art of using strings to create or make drawings. The Egyptian Vulture, Barn Swallow and Common Cuckoo were stringed, this is also to encourage the interest of the participants especially school children in migratory birds as well as their identification. Students were given the string boards for further practice in their various schools.

At Nguru, students of State College of Health Science & Technology, public and private owned secondary & primary schools, NYSC members and community people rallied for vulture conservation while commemorating WMBD.

While at Omo forest, NCF celebrated WMBD through Arts and Crafts competition, Stakeholders Meeting, Bird Watching Session, Community Awareness Campaign and WMBD Assembly.

In Calabar centre, participants gathered for an environmental talk on the need to protect the bird species and their habitat.

However, at Finima, after the bird watching, and interactive sessions, participants explore the splendour of the Finima Nature Park.

The World Migratory Bird Day is an annual event used to raise awareness on bird migration and the importance of protecting the flyways (which is the route they utilise for these trips) and habitats utilised by birds during this seasonal experience. Migration is a regular and seasonal movement of birds between their breeding sites, which is where they give birth to their young and their wintering sites. The North to the Southern ends of Nigeria always host these wintering birds, thus, in addition to raising awareness for protecting habitats for resident birds, we must also do same for these migrants.”

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