Events

Wilderness and Culture Fund is supporting different environmental awareness raising events throughout Armenia. All events are focused on advocacy for nature protection reaching out to the entire society and youth in particular in order to increase environmental awareness. We believe youth and children are the real and most important change-makers on earth. The youth protests around the world, the Friday for Future (F4F) movement and many other protests and initiatives clearly show that youth have the real power to change the world. Thus we always stress the engagement of youth in our projects and events.

SunChild International Environmental Festival

SunChild International Environmental Festival was established in 2007 by wildlife filmmaker and conservationist Ruben Khachatryan. The Festival screens wildlife and environmental films from all over the world and hosts workshops, exhibitions and media campaigns designed to foster a culture of environmental stewardship. During the 10 years of the festival’s existence, more than 700 films from 150 countries around the world have been screened. The SunChild International Environmental Festival is the first and only of its kind in the South Caucasus region.

The Festival takes place in autumn, but it also ”travels’’ in the regions of Armenia throughout the whole year, involving a large number of children and youth, facilitating identification and creative solutions of community environmental issues by organizing thematic film screenings, discussions and other initiatives, encouraging and supporting to take action locally.

The SunChild IEF usually takes place in Yerevan, but in 2018 the festival was held in Vardahovit community, Armenia, taking hundreds of enthusiastic people to the rural area for three days.

SunChild IEF logo was created from ancient Armenian petrographic symbols used six thousand years ago, which also later was found in ancient Egyptian symbols. The sun-shaped symbol symbolizes the people or the living world, and the small curved symbol inside symbolizes prosperity and growth.

Pan Armenian Painting Contest

This is an alternative open platform for the youth and children in Armenia and Diaspora. Every year thousands of children and youth join us to present their thoughts, emotions, feelings and concerns on nature and environment. The contest had more than 30.000 participants from Armenia and Diaspora throughout its history. The highlight of the Pan Armenian Painting Contest is annual Painting Day, which takes place in different parks in Yerevan with hundreds of young painters from the Armenian regions and Yerevan. Each year the Contest has unique cultural and environmental theme, which is being portrayed by all the participants.

Animal Carnival Parade is an important awareness raising event, which takes places within the SunChild IEF.

This unique event will involve hundreds of young people from Yerevan and regions of Armenia who march through the streets of Yerevan wearing animal costumes and masks created from waste materials. The Animal Parade fills the capital with the air of wildlife aiming to advocate against the violation of animal rights, raise public awareness for animal welfare and wildlife protection, especially for Armenian species on the brink of extinction.

The Animal Carnival Parade is a unique event as well as a contest where the participants compete in 3 categories:

best environmental costume
best creative solution
best musical group

Other events and festivals

Along with the traditional annual events, WCF supports and promotes different thematic environmental events, which are mainly dedicated to introducing the rural communities and promoting their lifestyle to the urban citizens in Armenia and other countries. The festivals and events are aimed at the development of rural tourism and economic development of communities, as well as to create additional sources of income for rural population.