May 21st is Annual Endangered Species Day, which aims to raise awareness of the global importance of protecting endangered species of animals, plants, and other living beings, as well as the actions that need to be taken to protect and preserve them. This is a very serious environmental problem. Therefore, it is extremely important to draw children’s attention to the study and conservation of biodiversity in our region.
For this purpose, on May 20th, the teachers of the Transcarpathian Regional Ecological and Naturalistic Center for Students Youth (TRENCSY) held an ecological event with the students of TRENCSY and children of IDPs in the form of an outdoor tour. Young nature lovers visited Castle Park, which is a park of landscape art of local significance, where they had the opportunity to feel all the beauty of nature, and see and touch the maple tree – the memorial tree of Transcarpathia. This time you can watch the birds nesting away from the noisy streets of the city, feel the smell of flowering plants, and hear how the river Uzh flows.
First of all, young researchers began the most captivating and responsible work – observation. The children were divided into three groups and given tasks. The first group was given the task “Recognize the leaf of the park tree”; the second – naturalists – “Guess the description of the animal”; the third – botanists – “What do you know about this plant?” It was nice to see how hard they were working. It was also fascinating to watch the children’s search work. Young nature lovers looked with the help of binoculars to the farthest corners of the park, looking for interesting and unrecognizable plants, and observing the birds.
Since endangered species of plants and animals suffer mainly from the loss and degradation of habitats, the children were invited to express their ideas for solving this problem. The first thing that children can do is follow the rules of behavior in nature. At the final stage of the event, teachers held a talk and dwelled on the importance of the Red Book as an official state document containing a list of rare, vulnerable, and endangered species of fauna and flora of Ukraine, as well as summarized information about the current state of these species and measures for their conservation. The children had the opportunity to get acquainted with some representatives of the Red Book flora and fauna found in Transcarpathia by looking at the demonstration cards “Animals and Plants of the Red Book of Ukraine”.
We hope that the gained knowledge and observations will once again convince young people of the importance of preserving the biodiversity of our region and the planet as a whole! Let’s not forget that we are a part of nature, so we must do everything possible and impossible to save all existing species of animals and plants!
The event was held in cooperation with the Transcarpathian Regional Ecological and Naturalistic Center for Students Youth (TRENCSY) and the Interreligious and Environmental Civil Forum of Eastern Europe (IRCEF) (headed by Alexander Bokotey) with the support of the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU).
Informational Service of IRCEF