Monday, April 28, 2014

BIODIVERSITY GALA- Ottawa, Canada- April 28, 2014

 The Second Annual St-Laurent Academy Biodiversity Gala, celebrating excellence in protecting our biological heritage. The event was held at St-Laurent Academy in Ottawa, Canada.  Biodiversity is short for Biological Diversity and it is defined as the variety of all living things.  

 The first award of the 2014 Biodiversity Gala went to Mr. David Coates (Convention on Biodiversity- United Nations) Environmental Affairs Officer for Inland Waters

 Unfortunately the Hon Yasir Naqvi could not be with us today.  He is hard at work in Toronto at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario but he has left us a special video message.

 We live on a beautiful planet.  We all have a stake in protecting our world’s exceptional diversity and we must help to stop it’s loss. Our recipients today inspired us all to be the best we can be.  Image above of the 2014 winners and participants.

 Chafic Bouchakra has had a strong interest in the environment since his High School days and was a strong leader at our International Biodiversity Symposium in 2009.  He travelled to COP10 in Japan in 2010 to promote our International Youth Accord and now works at Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo here in Ottawa!

 Eric, or as he is better known on our biodiversity blog as “Mr. Panama”, is an exceptional naturalist and photographer.  

 Roots & Shoots was founded by Dr. Jane Goodall, in 1991, with the goal of bringing together youth from preschool to university age to work on environmental, conservation and humanitarian issues. Image with Roots and Shoots representative Allison Forsythe.

 Tara Wilson, a First Nations youth who informs us about the reality of residential schools, their effect on the identity, and the loss to the First Nation’s People of their strong connection to the land.

St-Laurent Academy School provided the music for the event.  

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is an international charity working globally towards their mission of saving species from extinction.  Image from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust


See more images here:




Congratulations to all the Grade 7 students who worked as a team to make this event happen.  Thank you to Devonshire Public and Notre Dame Catholic School for assisting in the nomination process.  Images by Mr. Leveille

No comments:

Post a Comment