Let's Protect Gazelles! - the 2021 Environmental Summer Camp has been Successfully Completed

From July 28-30, the "Reintroduction of gazelles to their historical habitats in the Caucasus" program, initiated by Leyla Aliyeva, Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and founder of the IDEA Public Union, continued its mission in educating and developing youth through the ecological summer camp "Let's protect gazelles!". Approximately 60 schoolchildren from Salyan district participated in the camp, which was organized by the IDEA Public Union, the Youth Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), with the support of the Salyan District Executive Authority.

The main goal of the ecological summer camp "Let's protect gazelles!" is to educate the young generation living in areas where gazelles have been reintroduced, including those close to their natural habitats, about this species.

During the first day of the camp, schoolchildren engaged in presentations and training sessions about gazelles' lifestyles, their historical presence in our country, their distribution areas, their role in nature, the efforts and successes in restoring their population as a rare species, and participated in various environmental competitions and fun environmental knowledge contests.

On the second day of the camp, participants visited Shirvan National Park. They observed the fauna and flora characteristic of the park's territory using modern safari-type vehicles, exploring its rich natural landscapes, which greatly interested the schoolchildren. The participants also had the opportunity to observe gazelles listed in the "Red Book" of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

During the final day of the camp, students watched documentaries such as "Azerbaijan: Saving the gazelles" and "Shirvan National Park," directed by Igor Bishnyov as part of a special project by the IDEA Public Union featuring series about national parks. Later, ecological team games in nature, studies on identifying fauna species based on footprints, and explanations of safety rules in natural areas were conducted. Certificates and souvenirs were presented to the participants at the end of the camp.

The program "Returning gazelles to their historical habitats in the Caucasus" was launched by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in 2010 and is currently successfully implemented through joint cooperation between the IDEA Public Union, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, and WWF Azerbaijan. Over the years, more than 150 gazelles have been reintroduced from Shirvan National Park to their historically inhabited areas in Azerbaijan and Georgia, with ongoing monitoring and protection efforts. While the program aims to increase and safeguard the gazelle population, raising public awareness remains a key objective. Summer camps like these, organized for schoolchildren, play a crucial role in achieving this goal. It is worth noting that, thanks to successful efforts in this area, the gazelle population in the Republic of Azerbaijan has been estimated to be up to 7,000 individuals.