Tshwane children to celebrate World Wetlands Day
The day’s activities are designed to create awareness about the value of wetlands, how they are formed, how they function and how to protect them.
Tshwane children will celebrate World Wetlands Day in the Colbyn Wetland Nature Reserve on Saturday.
Friends of Colbyn Valley secretary Tamsyn Sherwill said around 200 children will visit the reserve to learn about wetlands and why there is a need to restore and protect them.
Sherwill said it is an annual event.
The theme for World Wetlands Day 2019 is “Wetlands and Climate Change”, promoting a message that “wetlands are the key to coping with climate change”, helping to reduce floods and relieve droughts, absorbing and storing carbon, and buffering coastlines from extreme weather.
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She said a number of environmental professionals and students have volunteered as leaders and facilitators, including, among others, the Tshwane University of Technology Green Arcadia students, University of Pretoria students and specialists from the Agricultural Research Council and the environmental affairs and water and sanitation departments.
“The event is aimed at children aged 8-13, drawn from various school and youth groups across the city. In addition, the NGO SOAPKidz will facilitate the attendance of vulnerable children from community development centres,” she said.
The day’s activities are designed to create awareness about the value of wetlands, how they are formed, how they function and how to protect them.
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Sherwill said participants will be taken on a wetland discovery walk and build a simple model to show how wetlands work.
“Wetlands are important areas for supporting bird diversity, and the day will kick off with the chance for some extreme-close-up birding – the bird ringers from BirdLife Northern Gauteng will set mist nets in the reserve before dawn, allowing visitors to see how the birds are caught, measured, ringed and released, and explaining how the practice of bird ringing contributes to avian science and conservation.”
The event will be hosted by the WESSA-affiliated Friends of Colbyn Valley and the Agricultural Research Council’s Institute for Soil, Climate and Water, assisted this year by WetResT Centre for Wetland Research and Training, the South African Wetland Society and BirdLife Northern Gauteng, and sponsored by Ocean Breeze Food Merchants.
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