Saiga Day
In 2017 this ecological festival drew a large audience in (>3000 people in Uzbekistan alone): from kindergarten and primary school kids to adults of all ages.
Saiga Day often includes sports (Saiga cup - football and volleyball), a saiga poster contest and an ecological theater competition, traditional performances, gala-show and award ceremony.
Prior to the Saiga Day in Uzbekistan in 2017, kids from two villages created a new mural in their eco-garden and organized a 'King of the clear-up' campaign to clean garbage from their village streets. Local businesses and enforcement agencies supported all the activities and even gave additional prizes for the Saiga football cup and the clean-up. An innovation for Saiga Day-2017 in Uzbekistan was the Saiga Run that took place in Nukus city followed by Jaslyk, Kirk-Kiz and Karakalpakstan villages and more than 1000 participants took part in the day (school kids, their parents, teachers and other local people who were keen to support the saiga conservation cause).
Saiga Day was conceived by the SCA as an international initiative to create a focus within rural communities for conservation of the saiga and its habitat. It’s held in Spring to mark the birth of the first saiga calves of the year, and is a celebration of life which unites communities across the saiga’s range under a common symbol.