WLI Bulletin March 2024
Category: 6-month newsletter, News, WLI Regional News
Published: March 22nd, 2024
WLI World March 2024
Issue 29 of WLI World: you can both download as PDF to print, or view story-by-story here. Open each story by tapping on its title.
Welcome to your latest Wetland Link International newsletter.
WLI plays a role supporting the Convention on Wetlands in its Oversight Panel for CEPA (Communications, Capacity Building, Education, Participation, Awareness). Felipe Velasco of Lake Tota, and Head of WLI Chris Rostron both sit on the Panel. Earlier this year we asked you to help the Panel with a survey on the CEPA resources that the Convention supplies, and dozens of you took part. Thank you! Your direct knowledge of working with schools and communities will inform how they design new resources.
Finally, we preview the next step in our flagship: the Star Wetland Centre Awards are back! In early April we will publish the details on the WLI website WLI.org.uk; for now, admire our new logos below!
I also invite you to register for the WLI webinars in October. Four of the Star Wetland Centres will talk about how what they do and what the Star means to them. I can tell you now, they are a joy, and an insight into people who share your passion despite their different situations and cultures.
Here are the times:
18 October 07.00 UTC
and
19 October 15.00 UTC
The third member of the WLI team at WWT is always a limited-term role, something like a paid internship. As this newsletter comes out we are saying farewell to Khouloud Belhadj, who has been a huge asset to the team. If you are in Europe or Africa and need some digital communications support, we highly recommend her!
We have just completed interviews for Khouloud’s successor in the role. Keep an eye on the WLI website to find out about the new team member for this year!
When WWT’s Washington Wetland Centre celebrated a great feedback on a new app after just one month, we contacted their Marketing and Communications Manager Deborah Nolan to find out more. Below you can read an edited version; we will make more of the chat available in video form as part of the WLI webinars, so keep an eye on the WLI website for that later in year.
Connor Walsh
First of all, tell us about the app.
Deborah Nolan
The idea is to increase engagement with our visitors before a visit, during a visit, and even after a visit. We're calling it a digital pocket guide because there are a lot of a lot of things in the app, but it can sit in your pocket.
Before a visit people can see the facilities that we have and get an idea of the accessibility around site. But then within the app there's a lot of information around the collection species, the different exhibits that we've got, the various habitats that we've got. A lot of key information that's above and beyond what may be on the interpretation boards.
And we've put some quizzes in there. Little quizzes that people can enjoy, during a lunch break – if you need the kids to sit down so you can have five minutes, just get them engaged a little bit further. It's a bit more interactive.
We've a lot of information in there about the reserve, the different habitats, the hides, but we're only touching the surface with what we can achieve within that for now.
I'm very conscious we don't want people just staring down at an app all the time, so it's very much like the pocket books that you get for species ID. You'd pull it out as a bit of an enhancement for an exhibit, or those key points where you're having a rest, or you're chilling with a coffee.
Connor Walsh
So for WLI members who are interested in having an app, what would you say?
Deborah Nolan
I would think doing a lot of research would be the starting point. Planning the time to look into the audiences and visitation, and whether it's something that would engage a certain number of audiences.
A lot of people that come here are of a family audience. They are on their mobile phones for a variety of reasons, but they plan their days and school holidays based on what you find on a phone.
So it I think for people that were thinking about it, it would be ‘is that audience there?’ Is it the right sort of tool for them, obviously do their research. I do think there's a lot of potential for it and hopefully there would be for their visitor centres.
It's been just over a month since we've properly launched it, so we're very keen to see what happens this year.
Connor Walsh
Fantastic. Thank you. It's very
After running a pilot course in 2023, WWT has received funding from the UK Government’s Darwin Initiative funding stream to develop its Wetland Learning Hub (WLH). The idea of the Hub is to create a largely online resource platform offering taught courses, webinars, workshops, wetland conservation resources, regional sub-hubs, and an opportunity to create an active online community of wetland practitioners.
WWT is a wetland restoration charity based in the UK, with ten wetland visitor centres across the country, but also with an international focus, supporting wetland education, wetland restoration and running projects in our key flyway areas of the East Atlantic flyway, the East Asia Australasia flyway, and focal countries of Madagascar and Cambodia.
Forty-three participants completed an online course, delivered by 16 wetland experts from across the globe, coordinated by WWT and hosted on The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Conservation Training platform.
We will develop the idea to create new regional approaches in West Africa, Madagascar and the Indo-Burma region, hosted on an in-house online training platform. Our aim is to build the capacity of wetland conservationists in the three regions and create long-lasting sets of resources and structures to take this beyond the life of the project. Working with our regional partners, the approach will take three key activities:
Create an online course that is suitable for local partners, in terms of content, language and delivery mechanism, and run face-to-face training at each location, bringing together practitioners to learn from each other, and from the activities run on the ground
Develop materials including taught courses, new and existing resources to create a regional online learning hub for partners
Create a long-term online and physical hub for continued training beyond the two years of the project, with associated human resources and funding.
Project activities will include three online courses, each with a week-long residential face to face training, for each region. 150 participants will receive online training, and of those 45 will attend face to face training. A further limited number will receive training-the-trainer sessions. We hope that teach region will work the others to share good practice and experiences.
If you would like to learn more, please contact Chris Rostron at chris.rostron@wwt.org.uk
In 2024, we are holding another round of the WLI Wetland Centre Star Awards. The accreditation scheme assesses your provision and awards Stars to the best wetland centres in the world. As before, that doesn’t just mean the biggest and richest!
A development this year is that even if you don’t feel ready for a full Star, you can apply for a limited category award: People, Facilities, or Biodiversity, as illustrated below. WLI members can apply via wli.wwt.org.uk/stars between 5 April and 31 May 2024. There you will also be able to meet our new panel of judges, and preview the questions in the updated application form.
The ‘Festival of Celebration of our Bahía Samborombón wetland’ has a twelve year history, thanks to the park rangers of the Bahía Samborombón and Rincón de Ajó Nature Reserves of the Ministry of Environment of the Province of Buenos Aires. This is amplified by collaboration and participation of institutions and local citizens. The festival takes place by the estuary in the port of the coastal town of San Clemente del Tuyu, in the Partido de La Costa.
Samborombón Bay, located in the northeast of the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina, provides fundamental ecosystem services. It provides habitat and food for the great biological diversity, is a source of water for the communities and plays a crucial role in the battle against the climate crisis, buffering floods and droughts. It is essential to incorporate these socio-ecosystems into a productive plan that is in harmony with environmental care and the quality of life of the communities.
In turn, given its biological value, it contains several protected natural areas. In 1997 it was designated a Wetland of International Importance and in 2011 Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site (WHSRN).
As for the activities carried out during the festival, there were bird watching outings, beach clean-ups, dance and percussion workshops, astronomical guided tours at dusk, first aid and forest fire prevention workshops, environmental games, reading of environmental books from the mobile library, live murga performances, cultural exhibitions, different activities and different activities, cultural shows. There are raffles where locals can win plants and trees native to the area, and stands are set up with various environmental themes so that people can learn more about the beautiful biodiversity contained in our wetland and promote appropriate environmental behaviour to conserve it!
Every year the Regional Park Salinas y Arenales de San Pedro del Pinatar celebrates the World Wetlands Day with different activities, for both school children and the general public.
This year, we held two special activities with the Manuel Tárraga Escribano Secondary School in San Pedro del Pinatar. The activities celebrated the important link that our closest wetlands, the Mar Menor and the Salinas de San Pedro del Pinatar, have with our wellbeing. After an introductory talk about these ecosystems, the participants demonstrated what they had learned by playing the popular TV game show Pasapalabra, adapted for this activity. Afterwards, the pupils created messages about these landscapes using words and expressions appropriate to their age group in the form of hashtags. Finally, we led a guided tour to learn about the fauna and flora of the wetlands and to reflect on the actions that can help to conserve them.
On the occasion of this celebration, there was also a guided tour for the general public where people of all ages discovered the great benefits of wetlands. The visit began at the Las Salinas Visitor Centre, recently reopened after the completion of comprehensive refurbishment work.
Author: Team of the Information Service of the Regional Park Salinas y Arenales de San Pedro del Pinatar. Directorate General for Natural Heritage and Climate Action. Department of Environment, Universities, Research and Mar Menor.
Welcome to a new WLI member and their enthusiastic Junior Patrol Team!
Lujiao Creek Constructed Wetland, established in 2008, serves as a sewage treatment plant, flood controller, and a great venue for all creatures to enjoy. However, sixteen years ago, it was a landfill. It wasn’t until the Taipei County government determined to improve the environment that the landfill transformed into an all-creature-friendly wetland.
It was Lujiao Creek Constructed Wetland’s Junior Water Environment Patrol Team that promoted an environmental education role. Teachers from elementary schools nearby organised this patrol team, in order to provide their students a chance to take eco-friendly actions and increase care towards the piece of land. Since then, teachers have called upon ten-year-old elementary school students to join the patrol team, and that’s where it all began.
Students joining the patrol team carry out their duties on the third Sunday of every month. They have to conduct water quality monitoring, species observations, and garbage removal. In addition, teachers invite professionals in related fields to give lessons such as birdwatching and plant identification. The students acquire knowledge rarely taught in school.
Teacher are busy too: they train students as wetland guides, produce teaching materials, and design lessons about Lujiao Creek Constructed Wetland for other elementary school students.
They top this all off with wetland study tours so that patrol team members can learn from the experience of others.
Over time, the make-up of the patrol team changes from elementary school students to students of all ages, and even graduates. Therefore, teachers started to introduce advanced courses about current trends such as SDGs and net-zero and provide chances for senior students to come up with new lessons to hand down these latest ideas to the young participants. For example, high school team members are responsible for orientation activities, and college students are in charge of the training camp for senior students. Everyone on the patrol team contributes to making Lujiao Creek Constructed Wetland better and better.
“When youths take action!”, students are way more powerful than imagined. The patrol team, consisting of members ranging from ten to sixty years old, commencing from northern Taiwan, now wants to reach the world.
Fundacion Kennedy present their Wetland Characterization Transfer Program for the Conservation of the Urban Wetland Network of Antofagasta.
In April 2023, we launched a new major conservation pilot project in the Antofagasta Region, Chile. This project focuses on identifying knowledge gaps and promoting the protection of seven urban wetlands in Antofagasta. With financial support from the Regional Government and private donations, progress has been made in delineating the wetlands and establishing baseline data, generating technical documents to facilitate their designation as urban wetlands, a legally protected status under the recent Urban Wetlands Law No. 21.202.
This process has also had a strong community engagement component, including open activities such as clean-ups and guided tours of the wetlands, educational talks, as well as close collaboration with our Engagement Program. To date, three young local interns and one biotechnology student, funded to advance our scientific research, have been involved.
Scheduled to conclude in September, this project has demonstrated the importance of conservation initiatives, incorporating watershed studies and territorial involvement to establish a robust network of protected wetlands and ensure the preservation of these crucial natural spaces within the city.
Some project indicators to date include:
- 200 participants in community activities
- Ten educational activities
- 184 hours of wetland monitoring
- Five out of seven wetlands delineated with baseline information
If you would like to learn more about the project or about us, please visit www.fundacionkennedy.cl or contact us at contacto@fundacionkennedy.cl
