资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

29 June 2020 - Given the COVID-19 global pandemic situation, many of the special days WWF-CEE normally celebrates in the calendar year such as Earth Hour, Earth Day, and now Danube Day have gone digital. This change has required a retooling of both our strategies and tools. WWF-Bulgaria has been especially proficient in making the adjustment. Besides releasing thousands of baby Beluga sturgeon into the Danube River at Belene last week in honour of Danube Day (thanks to WWF-Netherlands, WWF-Austria and the contributions of hundreds of people in a crowdfunding campaign), they are also running a digital campaign.
 
Using the sturgeon release as a launching point, WWF-Bulgaria wanted to use sturgeons and their story to inform people about what is going on with Bulgarian rivers – their problems and those of their inhabitants, and why is it important to have free flowing rivers and take care of them. Since sturgeons are not something people come face-to-face with every day, especially since they are the most endangered group of species on the planet, the organisation turned to something more familiar to the average person – movies. And just like a good movie, the script has a twist and a hijacking scene.
 
Since sturgeons have been around since the time of the dinosaurs, WWF has hijacked the logotype of the Jurassic Park movie poster to create a film – Anthropocene. While dinosaurs went extinct in the Jurassic Era; due to our attitude towards rivers and their inhabitants, sturgeons are facing a similar fate in ours, the Anthropocene Era. No one wants to see this movie, this situation, become a reality. So the twist is an appeal by Bulgarian film directors to help them stop the filming of this movie/reality.
 
“Learn and care about rivers in order to help us NOT to produce this movie. It is the first blockbuster that no one wants to watch,” appeals director Kamen Kolarov in the movie trailer.
 
Three short animated films about The Making of Anthropocene will focus on the most common problems rivers face; problems that further endanger sturgeon such as water pollution, dams and other obstacles that block migration, and poaching. 
 
Meanwhile, WWF-Adria marked Danube Day with the launch of the first virtual sturgeon exhibition. Entitled Sturgeons: A Migratory Treasure of the Danube, the unique exhibition was created by WWF-Adria and local community partners from Negotin and the fledgling NGO Sturgeon Center to provide people with an engaging, virtual tour to learn all about these iconic fish – from the fact that sturgeon swam with the dinosaurs to their lack of scales and gigantic size. Critically, the virtual gallery outlines the important role that sturgeon have played in the lives of communities all the way along the Danube – and the critical role that communities can play in ensuring the survival of these extraordinary species.The exhibition also chronicles the main threats to sturgeon in the Danube as described above.
 
WWF-Adria invites you to celebrate Danube Day with them by visiting the exhibition and informing yourself about the importance of preserving the Danube River and the species that inhabit it. For a better experience, click on the "start guided tour" option, and then on each panel in front of you to hear the story of the virtual curator, or simply create a free account to see the visitors around you in real time. If you use a mobile device to access the exhibition, it recommends downloading the Artsteps application.
 
Danube Day
The annual event is organised by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) and WWF on June 29. The 14 countries of the Danube River Basin jointly celebrate one of Europe's greatest river systems, along with its people and the wildlife that rely on it. Due to the various restrictions on public gatherings throughout the Danube River Basin still in place as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, this year's Danube Day celebrations have shifted online. Here is an online Danube Day Adventure from ICPDR. #DiscoverDanube!
 
For more information:
Kalina Boyadzhieva
Events Officer,
WWF-Bulgaria
kboyadzhieva@wwf.bg
Tel: +359 878 843 494
 
Ivana Grubisic (virtual exhibit)
Communications Officer
WWF-Adria
igrubisic@wwfadria.org
Tel: +381 11 30 33 753