LAB Project Team celebrates World Biodiversity Day 2009

The theme for the International Day on Biological Diversity (IBD) in 2009 was invasive alien species (IAS). IAS constitute one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, and to the ecological and economic well-being of Earth and its inhabitants.

The celebration of IBD (also known as “World Biodiversity Day”) provides an opportunity to raise awareness for invasive alien species and to increase practical action to tackle the problem. This year the LAB Project Team celebrated the day on 22 May by participating in one of the City of Cape Town’s 14 Youth Environmental School (YES) Programme week long celebration events which involved 7 540 learners from Cape Town, aged between 10 and 13.

Members of the LAB Project Team attended one of these events at Goldfields Educational Centre in the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which was implemented by LAB project partner, South African National Botanical Institute (SANBI). The event featured fun-filled lessons that focused on exploring the rich biodiversity of the Kirstenbosch Garden. Through participation in the day’s activities, the learners developed an understanding that living organisms are linked to each other and depend on each other in complex food chains and food webs which have to be conserved because they not only provide human beings with the resources that we require, they also maintain life on Earth. Learners created artistic 'biodiversity' crowns and wrote messages of commitment on a biodiversity banner which they took back to the rest of their school after the event.