Photo op for Panama kids

PANAMA. Airbus, the National Geographic Society and the UNEP Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are running a world-reaching biodiversity campaign, “See the Bigger Picture” that will give Panamanian children the opportunity to enter an international photo contest, if they move fast.

The campaign calls on children and young people to illustrate the diversity of nature around them and to consider their role in conserving.

The initiative supports ‘The Green Wave’ for biodiversity and it leads up to the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010.

The photo competition was launched in June and ends on September 8.

The contest encourages the world’s youth to step outside, explore the variety of life and take a picture of what biodiversity means to them.

“See the Bigger Picture” photo contest calls children of 6 to 16 to take photos of biodiversity, to illustrate the diversity of nature around them and to consider their role in conserving it.

Pictures can be uploaded on www.seethebiggerpicture.org, experiences be shared with a community of 300,000 children already involved from all parts of the world.

The five best pictures will be rewarded with a trip to Washington, DC, visiting, amongst other places, National Geographic’s headquarters.

The campaign will be featured in the various language editions of National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Kids magazine and the National Geographic Channel.

Benefiting from the far-reaching distribution channels of the National Geographic Society, one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world,

“See the Bigger Picture” has a potential reach of over 260 million people in more than 190 countries.

Biodiversity is essential for safeguarding the future of our planet, home to millions of species.

But biodiversity is in serious decline.

The extinction rate has increased by as much as 1000 times.

Today up to 30 per cent of species are threatened to be lost.

Through continuous innovations, Airbus, a European aircraft manufacturer, has managed to reduce fuel burn and CO2-emissions of its aircraft by 70 per cent over the past 40 years.

The all new double-deck A380 consumes today less than 2.9 litres per passenger and 100 kilometers and is ready to fly with alternative fuels.