The spectacular big launch

The circus came to town !!!!

For half an hour the onlookers were mesmerized by the procession and the spectacle…
Why would an Air force band of  musicians lead a group of costumed performers at the Johannesburg International Motor Show (JIMS)?
Why are they all dressed up as insects, plants and animals?

And then it dawned on the spectators.. .. There were no circus caravans following, but “branded” new Toyota Fortuners and Hilux bakkies.  The crowd followed the procession to the Toyota stand. They listened to Ferdi de Vos, General Manager of Toyota South Africa and scientists of the University of Johannesburg (UJ), explaining the purpose and goal of the Toyota Enviro Outreach.

The band leading the procession

Giraffe & Zebra

Year of the Forest

Ramp at the Toyota Outdoor stand

The send-off for the 2011 Toyota Enviro Outreach was supported by the main role players:

Prof Charles Whitehead (Head of the Botany Department of UJ ) said:
I would like to thank Toyota, for their contribution, the UJ partnership with Toyota is a fantastic opportunity, because it allows our scientists who find it difficult to go the places and impact the community and to make the huge contribution to the barcoding project.
I envy the fact that you are going there (and I am not going with), for two reasons:
- to get into nature and everything that goes with it
- I also own a Toyota Fortuner, and I enjoy driving this great vehicle. That is a second opportunity you have.

I hope you get a lot of samples!

Prof. Michelle van der Bank (Head of the African Centre for DNA Barcoding) said:
The barcode has changed our lives, by making information available in a quick and easy way. The iBol project supported by Toyota will do the same for living species. Only 1.7m species on earth are described, which is a small fraction of 10 – 100mill. It is important that we go out and collect each and every species for this project, and build the iBol database.
And once we have our special bar-coder we will be able to link up to the database we are creating, with many useful applications for everybody.

Prof. Michelle van der Bank

Ferdi de Vos from Toyota SA

Dr. Richard Greenfield (Senior Technician at Department Zoology at UJ) said:
Our project objectives are twofold:
- collect as much DNA as possible, anything that lives we will try to sample
- 2nd spin-off project, we will take 220 kids from the primary school in Kosi Bay, and they will help us to collect insect samples and hopefully this will instigate an interest and a career in natural sciences and conservation.

The 2011 Toyota Enviro Outreach of 2011 is on its way!!