To celebrate the World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) in Armenia, the GTZ Sustainable Management of Biodiversity (SMB) Programme is initiating a big event to publicly present the results of its 2010 environmental education campaign entitled: “Exploring Biodiversity of Rivers and Streamlets in Armenia”. The World Water Monitoring Day event will take place on September 16 (Thursday) in the “Ani Plaza” Hotel, “Ani” Ceremonial Hall (address: 19 Sayat Nova Ave.). Registration of participants starts at 2:30pm. The official opening is at 3:00pm. End time - 5:30pm. The GTZ-SMB Programme would like to use this special occasion to create and raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity and sustainable use of our natural resources. The successful implementation of the aforementioned “Exploring Biodiversity of Rivers and Streamlets in Armenia” campaign was achieved due to productive collaboration with the RA Ministry of Nature Protection (MoNP), the RA Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) and, especially, with experts from the RA MoNP Environmental Effect Monitoring Center and the RA MoES National Institute of Education. Intent on teaching about modern environmental pedagogic methods, biodiversity of rivers and biological monitoring techniques, the GTZ-SMB Programme organized five 3-day trainings for a total of 120 school teachers from Armenia’s regions and Yerevan. As a result of these preparations, the teachers together with more than 1200 pupils and eco-club young members were able to carry out comprehensive scientific assessments and evaluation of water quality of rivers and streamlets in their communities. A competition entitled “Rivers – Living Ecosystems” was designed to motivate both, teachers and pupils, to explore biodiversity, assess the water quality of Armenia’s waterways and submit their results to a specially selected jury of experts, tasked with choosing the best assessments received during the announced competition. As part of the mentioned event on September 16, the RA Minister of Nature Protection, the RA Minister of Education and Science and the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. Hans-Jochen Schmidt, are anticipated to deliver opening speeches. Invitations are dlivered to other high-rank officials and representatives of the GTZ-SMB partner ministries in Armenia (RA MoNP, RA MoA, RA MoTA, RA MoES), as well as to the heads and representatives of numerous International and local organizations, school principals, teachers, children, eco-clubs and all those organizations and individuals who were the key players in the campaign 2010. During the WWMD event, GTZ-SMB Programme will present a 15-minute documentary about the concept and outcomes of the campaign. At the following it Awarding Ceremony the winners of the competition will be presented with special prizes. After that, an exhibition of art-works created by the participants of our competition will be held, and the event will culminate in a reception. We would be grateful if you accept our invitation and become a part of the World Water Monitoring Day celebration in Armenia. The GTZ-SMB Programme anticipates broad coverage of this event by Armenian mass media and, therefore, we would kindly ask your media source to help us make this important day more visible in Armenia. For more details on the event and to confirm your participation, please, contact Bella Avetisyan at (+374 10) 546031 or via E-mail: bella.avetisyan@gtz.de.

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