This annual naming ceremony of newly born mountain gorilla babies has this year been set for the 05th of June, coinciding with the World Environment Day, which is according to previous announcements by UNEP also being celebrated in Rwanda this year by the global conservation fraternity. It will be the 8th edition of the ‘Festival of Gorillas’ held in the country since its inception.
Kwita Izina 2010 will be held under the theme: ‘Raising Global Awareness of Biodiversity Conservation, as we give Names to our Gorilla Babies’.
Presently some 11 newborn are waiting to be named, maybe even more at the time of the festival, and the activities and celebrations are to be witnessed by about 500 local, regional, continental and global conservation personalities expected to come to the ‘land of the thousand hills’.
Rwanda takes conservation seriously and will across the entire year also hold events to celebrate the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity, which follows the UN’s Year of the Gorilla in 2009.
Watch this space for future updates as and when the programme and various locations and events become available.