Dear Birdingp-Aus,
The following article is a bit of a call for help from the European
birding community:
Close your eyes, and think about Rwanda. What do you see?
Sadly, for many people the first images that come to mind are those of
the 1994 genocide. However, today, Rwanda presents a stark contrast to
the country we saw on TV fourteen years ago. Today, with its blossoming
and lush jungle forests, mountain gorillas, endemic bird species,
beautiful lakes and a stable and growing economy, Rwanda is on the rise
- but few people know about it.
Those who do come to Rwanda, however, benefit from the efforts of the
Rwandan tourism board (ORTPN), which has dedicated itself to the
development and promotion of sustainable eco-tourism and conservation.
Rwanda has quite a bit to protect beyond our well-known distant cousins,
the mountain gorillas. In particular, Rwanda boasts the highest
concentration of different bird species in Africa with high levels of
endemism, hosting champions such as the much sought after Shoebill Stork
and Albertine Rift endemics. The opportunities to add to a life list
are very attractive.
In late 2007, ORTPN committed itself to the development of its birding
product so that travelers worldwide could benefit from Rwanda's birds.
As Rwanda continues to fine-tune its avitourism offering, it seeks to
get feedback from experienced travelers and birders. Given the
country's small size, understanding the needs of birders such as
yourself will allow Rwanda to best leverage its limited resources as it
builds its avitourism product.
If you have 15-20 minutes, please consider filling out the Rwanda
Avitourism Survey, as the results of this research will help Rwanda
better understand the needs of birders, and to build the specific
products and services that will exceed expectations.
If you do agree to fill out this survey, please be assured that we will
not try to sell you anything or ask for personally identifying
information. Any information you provide will be treated with strict
confidentiality and will only be represented in the aggregate.
If you would like to fill out the survey, please click on, or cut and
paste the following link into Internet Explorer. Make sure you get the
WHOLE link.
http://dev-surveyhost.otfgroup.com:8080/SRFrontEnd/Web/Init.aspx?surveyI
D=%7bFF490F84-A986-47FD-A204-B9C6BC7ACB3D%7d
Thank you in advance for any help you can give.
Jeremy H. Kahn
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
=============================
|
