OTTAWA, Ont. – Environment Canada invites Canadians aged of 9 to 35 years to celebrate the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity by participating in the Nature Matters! Contest.

Biological diversity is the variety and abundance of life on Earth. To help raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity all over the world, the United Nations General Assembly declared that 2010 will be the International Year of Biodiversity. Environment Canada is celebrating this, in part, with the national Nature Matters! Contest. 

Until March 28, 2010, Canadians between the ages of 9 and 35 years are invited to submit written or video essays that answer the following question:

“Why is nature important to you?” 

One grand prize winner and two runners up will be selected from each age group (9-13 years, 14-19 years and 20-35) in each of the two categories — video and written:

• Grand prize winners will be invited to Ottawa to attend the Grand Re-opening Event of the Canadian Museum of Nature on the International Day for Biological Diversity, May 22, 2010, where their achievement will be announced.
• Grand prize winning essays will be enlarged to poster size and displayed in public art panels outside Environment Canada's environmental museum, The Biosphère in Montreal.

• Grand prize winning video essays will be projected for Canadian and international visitors at The Biosphère in Montreal during 2010.
• Grand prize winning and runner-up essays will be published on the website of the Canadian Biodiversity Information Network, a shared public resource of our Federal, Provincial, and Territorial governments.
• Grand prize winning and runner-up essays will be announced through Environment Canada's network of national education and environment organizations, reaching well over one million people.

The contest is open to Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada only, submissions will be accepted in either French or English.

For full contest details, please visit the web site, at

http://www.cbin.ec.gc.ca/nature/concours-contest.cfm?lang=eng.

Media Relations

Environment Canada

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