James Tasamba
14 October 2006
Kigali — Rwanda for the first time, on October 8, joined the rest of the world to mark world bird's day with the 'theme connecting people with birds'.
The national celebrations were held at Nyabirehe Primary School in Musanze District and attended among others, by officials from the National Office of Tourism and National Parks (ORTPN), researchers from Karisoke Research Centre, local leaders and pupils of the school.
In his speech, Claudien Nsabagasani, a researcher at Karisoke Research Centre, deplored the low awareness of people on birds compared to other wild animals, calling on researchers in different institutions to carry out research on biodiversity conservation.
"Birds like other natural species need to be conserved as one of the tourist attractions in the country. This calls for more research by all stake holders on biodiversity in order to protect some of the rare species like birds to boost the tourism sector," Nsabagasani said, adding that there is a need to diversify the tourism sector in the country for more revenue to support socio-economic development.
On behalf of Karisoke Research Centre, Nsabagasani donated gifts to Nyabirehe Primary school which included, World Bird Festival poster, stickers showing bird habitats and postcard gorillas.
The education programme officer at the research centre, Serge Joram Nsengimana, promised to strengthen the birds club of Nyabirehe primary school (CPEENYA) which works to conserve the environment and birds. He committed to connect the club members to American non governmental organization-partners in conservation (PIC) in order to share experiences on biodiversity conservation.
According to research findings from Karisoke Research Center, Rwanda boasts of a total of seven important bird areas covering 2,538 km2 with 666 bird species. One of the areas include Volcanoes National Park (VNP) which is a home to 124 bird species gathered in 41 families, while some15 bird species are said to be gathered in the Albertine Rift. Three of the species; Bradypterus graueri, Cryptospza shelleyi and Falco naumani are said to be on the verge of extinction and need serious attention.
The celebrations were organised by ORTPN in collaboration with The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and Karisoke Research Centre.
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