GUATEMALA — The Bird Art Museum of Atitlan, announced that The Biologists, Dr. Linnea Hall, Executive Director and Lic. René Corado, Collections Manager of the Bird Museum of Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology (WFVZ) of Camarillo, California, will sign a Cooperation Agreement with Mr. Richard C. Rivera of the Art Museum of Atitlan.
René Corado, a Guatemalan residing in California, travels to Guatemala to sign the Agreement for Cooperation in Environmental Education with the Bird Art Museum of Lake Atitlan.
The WFVZ Bird Museum is recognized worldwide for having the largest bird egg collection in the world (more than 1 million) and the largest nest collection in the world (approximately 20,000) and a collection of 60,000 study skins from more than 100 countries and it has the mission of contributing to the conservation of wild bird species in the world.
The WFVZ, was founded in 1956, and has spent nearly 62 years contributing to the conservation of birds through bird education programs for scientific researchers, scientific artists, educators, professionals, the public, and other museums through research and bird conservation projects based on its own collections and publications.
The cooperation agreement between the WFVZ and the Bird Art Museum of Lake Atitlán, will benefit the communities of the lake basin by providing information and education on ornithology, environmental education, biological research, protection of migratory and threatened species, bird banding, preparation and conservation of bird study skins.
The Art Museum of Atitlan exhibits 440 birds from 21 Orders in 63 Taxonomic families, of which 64 are threatened and 55 are water birds. Each species is represented in an interactive photographic plate with a QR code to be scanned from a cell phone or a tablet, which immediately presents descriptive bilingual (English / Spanish) information of each one as well as their sounds and videos.
The Art Museum of Atitlán complies with the objectives of the Decree of the Reserve of Multiple Uses of the Lake Atitlán Basin (RUMCLA):
- It provides education for environmental conservation.
- It encourages the integral and sustained use of natural resources.
- It creates employment and economic flow for the communities.
- It protects the natural and cultural heritage of the Lake Atitlán Basin.
The social mission of the Bird Art Museum of Lake Atitlán is to provide environmental education in a fun way to students between third grade of grammar school (9 years) and the basic secondary schooling (8th grade, 14 years) with the objective to teach children from the the Lake Atitlán Basin how to identify and respect birds and protect their habitat, carrying out conservation and reforestation projects benefiting biodiversity and the local population.
Spanish Write up, Institutional Videos and Websites:
Write up: http://revistaviatori.com/lugares/brid-art-museum-avimuseo-arte-atitlan/
English video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVQ39MzbL2g
Spanish video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTcdjvyWjU0
Web page in Spanish: www.avimuseo.com (English is in the process)
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/avimuseo.com/