12/12/2005
- Washington, DC - Earths Birthday Big Gift to the Earth
is an educational activity for children who wish to take
care of the Earth. Every year, students in schools throughout
the United States raise money to save threatened rainforests.
Their small donations are combined to become one Big Gift,
which is then presented to a conservation organization dedicated
to preserving natural places. Since 11000, children participating
in the program have collected more than $5 million.
For 2005, the 35th anniversary of Earth
Day, Earths Birthday Project and WWF joined in a special
partnership to support the Amazon Region Protected Areas
(ARPA) program to help safeguard the biological treasures
of the Brazilian Amazon.
Earths Birthday has collected over
US $200,000 for this purpose. In recognition of the tremendous
effort by students dedicated to conserving nature in the
planets most important rain forest, the Global Environmental
Facility is making a contribution in the amount of US
$600,000, also in support of the Amazon Region Protected
Areas program.
The funding will be used to support
permanent protection of critical rain forest habitats
through the Protected Areas Fund, an endowment established
under the ARPA program for the explicit purpose of ensuring
long-term financial viability for the protected areas
being implemented under the program.
Actions to ensure conservation of Amazon rainforests include
identifying the most biologically important tracts of
rainforest in need of protection, strengthening local
participation in park management and creating opportunities
for families and communities dependent on forest resources,
establishing effective park management practices, and
maintaining needed equipment and infrastructure.
To thank the students participating
in Earths Birthday for their efforts to draw attention
to the Amazon as one of the worlds truly important places
in need of conservation, a videoconference exchange will
be hosted on December 13th, 2005 at the offices of World
Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037.
Fifteen students representing grades
3 though 6, from the Spring Hill Elementary School, Mclean,
VA, will join with Amazon experts from WWF, the World
Bank, and the Brazilian government to discuss the theme
of conservation and the Amazon. Spring Hill Elementary
is one of many schools participating in Earths Birthday
educational activities, and its students raised more than
US $6,000 to support Amazon conservation in 2005.
The contribution of US $800,000 from
Earths Birthday and the Global Environment Facility will
be recognized and celebrated as part of the videoconference.
Notes:
• The Amazon Protected Areas Programme's (ARPA) main goal
is to establish a network of protected areas to help protect
a significant sample of biological diversity in the Amazon
biome.
During Phase I (2003-2006), ARPA has
a goal of creating 9 million hectares of total protection
conservation units to secure protection of biodiversity.
In addition to this, the programme also aims to create
another 9 million hectares of sustainable use conservation
units, as is the case with extractive reserves, which
allow for the economic use of natural resources as long
as adequate management plans are presented.
The programme also plans to consolidate,
by 2006, 7 million hectares of protected areas which existed
previously. Coordinated by the Brazilian Ministry of the
Environment and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment,
the programme is implemented in partnership with State
governments, the Brazilian Fund for Biodiversity (Funbio),
World Bank, German Development Banks, and WWF-Brazil.
|
