For the past 46 years, World Environment Day has been celebrated every year on June 5th. Shortly after the Stockholm Conference in 1972, also known as the Conference on the Human Environment, the United Nations designated World Environment Day “to [encourage] worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.” The Limits to Growth had been published earlier that same year, warning that our natural resources were finite and non-renewable. Despite the time that has passed and the progress that has been made since then, this remains a pending agenda item in policies and laws that promote true sustainable development by governments, in programs of social and environmental business responsibility, and in the commitment shown by the citizens of the world.
In Nicaragua, one of the main events to commemorate World Environment Day this year was an “EnviroExpo” on June 7th and 8th. The event was prompted by Earth Fair, an environmental platform promoted and organized by the Youth Environmentalist Movement of Nicaragua. This event brought together speakers from the private business sector, civil society organizations, entrepreneurs, and some local governments. This was the 18th EnviroExpo, and the very first time the event included a stand dedicated to shorebird conservation. The stand included a display of the shorebird research and monitoring work that has been done in Nicaragua since 2013, that has generated an important knowledge base to inform management and conservation actions that benefit shorebirds.
The event featured the signature shorebird wings of the #WeAreAllShorebirds campaign. Visitors were invited to take their photo with this giant pair of wings to show their support for shorebird conservation. As they posed for a photo with these symbolic wings, we explained that this campaign, started by Fundación Inalafquen in Argentina in 2015, had united us in Nicaragua with other shorebird conservation efforts across the Hemisphere. Without a doubt, the EnviroExpo was an opportunity to raise awareness and foster a change in attitude towards the challenges we face as citizens of the world: the environmental crisis, the loss of biodiversity, and the many threats that nature, shorebirds, and people all face.
Many people posed with the #WeAreAllShorebirds wings to show their support for shorebird conservation, including Joselín Manzanarez, Executive Secretary of the Youth Environmentalist Movement of Nicaragua (left) and Professor Octavio Saldaña, Coordinator of the Bat Conservation Program in Nicaragua (right). Photos: Salvadora Morales.
Michael Gutiérrez, Quetzalli Nicaragua’s Shorebird Census coordinator, reflected on what it meant to participate in the EnviroExpo. “It was a motivating and inspiring experience because it allowed us to share the work we’re doing for the birds with future generations and with the general public. In addition to these interactions, it was a chance to get feedback from other colleagues and entrepreneurs around a common theme: how to conserve natural resources.”
“It was an enriching experience for all of us,” said Erika Reyes, Quetzalli’s Monitoring Director. “We were able to share experiences with colleagues that are also working to protect and conserve our country’s fauna, and business owners that work with natural products from our own Nicaraguan flora. We had visits from children, teenagers, and young students who were exploring career possibilities in conservation, and were able to get to know the work of each of the organizations represented at the fair.”
Visitors to the shorebird stand at the World Environment Day EnviroExpo in Nicaragua. Photo: Salvadora Morales.
In the end, these wings helped us reach adults and children alike. They open an opportunity to share information and show that shorebirds can be ambassadors to unite institutions, businesses, and civil society to work together to conserve the habitats that are more and more threatened by degradation, loss, and disturbance.
To learn how to bring the wings and the #WeAreAllShorebirds campaign to your next event, visit the Community Outreach Resources section of the WHSRN website.
Cover Photo: Visitors to the shorebird stand at Nicaragua’s 2019 EnviroExpo in celebration of World Environment Day. Photo: Salvadora Morales.
