The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Zambia says young people should take an active role in efforts to conserve nature.
WWF Zambia this year launched an exciting and engaging Facebook competition in the lead up to World Wetlands month 2017 which fell on February 2nd 2017 under the theme ‘Wetlands for Disaster Risk Reduction’.
The competition ran for a month on the WWF Zambia Facebook page, inviting young people to participate by posting to the page a photo of themselves holding a placard explaining what Wetlands mean to them.
They were then required to encourage their friends to ‘like’ their photos.
The top 10 most liked photos were selected as winners of the challenge.
The prize was a fun and educational visit to the Lochinvar National Park and the top three winners got the chance to go on a once in a life time aerial tour of the Kafue flats.
WWF Zambia Head of Communications and Marketing Mr. Eneya Phiri highlighted that the competition was aimed at cultivating interest and creating dialogue among young people in Zambia on the importance of wetlands to their communities.
“As WWF, we felt it was only appropriate to raise awareness among young people about wetlands and how they contribute to their communities, particularly in extreme weather conditions such as the floods we are facing now in parts of the country” Mr. Phiri explained.
Mr. Phiri said the competition is part of WWF Zambia’s Young Conservation Trailblazers (YCT) initiative to promote young people become conservation champions and custodians of their natural environment.
Wetlands are areas where land is covered by water, either permanently or periodically that lead to the existence of unique ecosystems.
Examples of Wetlands in Zambia include the Kafue Flats, Bangweulu Swamps and Barotse Floodplains.
These wetlands play a crucial role in the biological make-up of Zambia and offer many benefits to communities.
The Kafue Flats for instance support high concentrations of the Kafue Lechwe—which are unique to Zambia-providing tourism opportunities unlike any other, anywhere else in the world.
The winners of the WWF Wetlands Day Facebook competition enjoyed an aerial tour of the Kafue Flats experiencing the true size and sheer beauty of the flats from the sky and in addition saw the human settlement areas in the Namalyo and Nyimba fishing villages that are situated within the flats.
BA LT, IT IS UTTERLY, c JUST TO UN SPECIFICALLY, CAPTION THE IMAGE (PICTURE). SAY AND I QUOTE: “Aerial view of some of the wetlands toured as part of the WWF Zambia event”, OR “Zambian Wetlands” SHOWS LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON YOUR PART AND HOW UNPROFESSIONAL AND STUP!D YOU ARE AT JOURNALISM.
I AM APPEALING TO LT READERSHIP: CAN YOU, PLEASE, TELL ME WHICH WETLANDS THESE ARE IN THE FIRST AND LAST PICTURES?
That’s without doubt the Zambezi River meandering through the Barotse Flood plain. The lack of identification of the sites smacks of yellow journalism
nature is also funny a river meandering in a plain when it could have just passed strait….lol
Lusaka Times should create a like facility. Some of these stories we dont have to comment on but just like