Description:
Vulture species and their disappearance from Romania are of particular concern to our NGO. Our goal is to contribute to future efforts aimed at reintroducing these majestic birds into our country's skies. The species that once roamed our skies are the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), the Bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), the Cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus), and the Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus). Last year, to mark International Vulture Awareness Day, Natura 5 organized a special event to raise awareness and demonstrate our dedication to restoring these species. As a symbolic gesture of appreciation, we flew vulture-shaped kites in natural settings and shared our own video materials focused on vulture conservation. These activities were designed to engage and educate the community, as we understand that local support is essential for achieving meaningful conservation impact. This year, we aim to continue our awareness campaign by organizing an even larger event, hoping to raise public attention and mobilize support for the protection of these important species. Considering that, we are planning an event designated to all age groups and social categories, aiming the following objectives: - To collect data on the opinion of the general public about vultures through surveys; - To encourage the community to discover more about vultures, their ecological role in biodiversity and the species that used to live in our country ; - To raise awareness about vultures and endangered vulture species; - To connect specialists and promote knowledge-sharing debates and discussions; - To contribute to environmental education from early ages; - To celebrate with the local community the importance and impressiveness of vulture species. We will conduct this action close to Morii Lake’s area, a biodiversity hotspot in Bucharest . In order to achieve our objectives, we are planning to organize an event consisting of three activities. We’ll kick off the event by gathering data through opinion surveys regarding vultures to gain a broader understanding of people’s knowledge and knowledge gaps when it comes to vultures. Building on last year's success, we are scaling up the vulture kite-flying event as part of our ongoing project. This year, we’re inviting the local community to actively participate in this expanded kite-launching activity, encouraging everyone to join us and become a part of our initiative to raise awareness and support for vulture conservation. We’ll close the event with an interactive presentation about vultures’ conservation efforts and the possibility of reintroduction of the species in Romania, in which we will engage environmental specialists in a debate and discussion session about the benefits that vulture populations bring to the environment. We aim to educate all generations about vultures by directly involving the local community in our raising awareness initiatives in non-formal and informal ways.