08.09.16

Follow unique environmental expedition "Flight of the swans": after Bewick’s swans with paramotor


Baltic Environmental Forum Lithuania helps to implement unique environmental expedition "Flight of the swans", which seeks to encourage Bewick’s swans' protection. The brave woman Sacha Dench will fly all the migration route by paramotor together with swans. She will pass 7,000 km over 11 countries with the stop in Lithuania in Nemunas delta.

Baltic Environmental Forum Lithuania together with Birdlife Lithuania, Lithuanian Nature Research Centre, Lithuanian Ornithological Society and paramotor co-ordinator Aivaras Akramas will take care the visit in Lithuania. Some public events and meeting with local communities will be arranged.

The Flight of the Swans will begin at the Bewick’s summer breeding grounds of high arctic Russia.Once they’ve safely navigated the vast Russian tundra – and its polar bears – Sacha and the team will continue to track the swans’ progress through Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and France.

If Sacha completes the flight from the French coast to England, she’ll become the first woman to successfully cross the English Channel by paramotor.

Now on the home straight, and following the Thames, Sacha will fly through central London before finishing the mammoth journey at WWT Slimbridge.

With four years paramotoring experience, eight years paragliding expertise, and a day job – as WWT’s head of media – Flight of the Swans leader, Sacha Dench, is at home in the skies. And she’s no stranger to the oceans either. In fact Sacha’s a British national free-diving champion – able to hold her breath for an astonishing 6 minutes and 22 seconds. Such endurance will be vital for success. That’s why Sacha is pursuing a training regime so she hits peak fitness for the flight of her life later this year.

Why ‘Flight of the Swans’ matters

Between 1995 and 2010 numbers of swans making the migration from arctic Russia to northern Europe plummeted by more than a third – from 29,000 to just 18,000.

By joining the Bewick’s on their migration, Sacha and the expedition team will see for themselves just why swans are unable to survive the journey.

Flight of the Swans will gather first-hand evidence and information that, combined with existing research, can contribute to life-saving conservation action right along the Bewick’s migratory flyway.

To keep updated about this unique expedition, please, follow updates on the webpage (www.flightoftheswans.org) and in social media Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Sir David Attenborough head a list of hundreds of businesses, charities and individual supporters throughout Europe and Russia who are getting behind a unique expedition to save Europe’s smallest swan from disappearing.


burberry outlet online