(Please click on the following link – in orange – in order to view photos of the celebration.) Biodiversity Day celebration in Mongolia UN proclaimed 2010 to be the International Biodiversity year. In the range of this year, biodiversity day was celebrated worldwide last Saturday, 22nd May. Mongolia was also part of this global event and organized series of public awareness activities. The day began with an interesting public lecture raising the biodiversity issues in the National University of Mongolia. Leading biology experts gave lectures not only highlighting the importance of biodiversity in today’s world, the values and benefits of protected areas in biodiversity conservation, but also introduced alarming fact sheets on the biodiversity loss and the intersectoral linkage of those issues e.g. in agriculture, economy, security and health sectors.
Furthermore, the Natural History Museum opened its doors to the public free of charge where leading university professors worked as museum guides which was a unique opportunity for lucky visitors.
The most exciting and inspiring event was the mobile campaigning of students who wore species costumes and with the masks put on the heads. The species include snow leopard, argali sheep, marmot, mongolian saiga and panda. Students delivered messages on behalf of those rare species through the sign boards. This was an impressive, but simple way to attract public and have the voices of animals heard. Three groups of “species” traveled in the hot spots of the capital city of Mongolia for three days in a row. Besides, WWF Mongolia undertakes one-month media campaign focusing on newspapers, specialized magazines and national TV channels to make audience aware of biodiversity issues. The issues of protected areas were stressed in the campaign to communicate their value and benefits to nature and humans.