THE Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds (SCSCB], the largest single regional organisation devoted to wildlife conservation, is holding the 7th annual Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) until to May 22.

Using the theme "Tundra to Tropics: Connecting Birds, Habitats, and People", the Society will be supported by some 35,000 individuals in what is expected to be the largest festival to date.

The event is the global launch of a theme that will also be used across the Western Hemisphere later this year, led by the International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD), to recognise the crucial trans-national links that exist for birds moving between temperate and tropical regions.

In launching this year's festival, which began on April 22, Andrew Dobson, president of the SCSCB, and past-president of the Bermuda Audubon Society, described the focus of the festival as "the hard reality of conservation work".

Mr. Dobson emphasised that the conservation of birds will always require co-operation, because wild animals, unlike people, do not recognise political and cultural boundaries.

He noted that unless representative habitats, not just in some countries, but across the region were systematically conserved, the conservation of many migratory species would fail.

"If the historical resting, feeding, and breeding grounds for migratory birds are destroyed by this generation, we are leaving other generations to see species only in our published records," Mr. Dobson said.

According to Mr. Dobson, the time was overdue for greater collaboration and exchange between both government and non-government agencies (both regionally and internationally) to improve environmental education and safeguard habitats for species, especially given the additional and growing threat of global climate change.

The purpose of the month-long festival over its six-year history has been to increase public awareness of the region's exceptionally rich and threatened bird life, using the Caribbean's celebrated endemic birds as flagships of conservation.

Festival activities include a diverse array of public events including bird-watching excursions, lectures, seminars, photographic exhibitions, school-based art and costume competitions, church services, media campaigns, and theatrical productions all in recognition of the region's rich bird life, natural heritage, and interconnectedness of regional habitats to global events.

After a humble beginning, the festival has grown to consistently include in excess of 30,000 participants in recent years. The festival has been described as an unprecedented initiative of regional unification for heightening environmental education and awareness by leading international conservation organisations.

Maurice Anselme, Director of the Regional Activity Centre of the SPAW Protocol, the only region-wide environmental treaty that protects critical marine and coastal ecosystems, remarked that, in keeping with the theme, it was vital that discussions about conserving Caribbean species underscore the importance of how interdependent people are to the region's natural habitats and its wildlife including its birds.

"It's all about our natural resources and how they are working for us in watershed and shoreline protection, waste recycling, and maintaining the beauty of the islands," Mr. Anselme noted.

In Bermuda, a number of activities have already been held or are planned for coming weeks. This week, the Bermuda Audubon Society and Bermuda Zoological Society jointly hosted a lecture on the importance of bird life in the UK Overseas Territories.