3191) Experience Nature - Butterflies on Bonaire: "Experience Nature 2024-2026 Perennial Stamp Series": A set of Stamps issued by PostNL (Netherlands Post) featuring the Flora and Fauna found in this part of the Netherlands: Date of Stamp Set issue: 12.02.2024:
On 12.02.2024, PostNL will issue Experience nature – Butterflies on Bonaire, a sheet of ten stamps in ten different designs.
The stamps bear the denomination of ‘Nederland 1’ for post weighing up to 20g with destinations in the Netherlands.
The stamp sheet featuring the butterflies found on Bonaire is part of the multi-year Experience Nature series dedicated to the Caribbean Netherlands from 2024 to 2026.
As part of this series, four stamp sheets will be released every year, each containing ten different stamps.
The stamps feature plants and animals found in this part of the Netherlands.
With thousands of species of plants and animals, the islands in this area have a biodiversity unprecedented by Dutch standards.
In 2024, the sheets in this series will focus on the birds, butterflies, underwater life and, lastly, flora found on the island of Bonaire.
Experience Nature – Butterflies on Bonaire:
features the little yellow, hanno blue, mimic, monarch, fiery skipper, white peacock, cracker, disjunct scrub-hairstreak, great southern white and gulf fritillary.
Like Sint Eustatius and Saba, the island of Bonaire has a special status within the Netherlands.
The collective name for the three islands is the Caribbean Netherlands.
Along with the countries of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, they form the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Bonaire comprises almost 29,000 hectares of land, which is one and a half times the area of the Dutch island of Texel.
Bonaire is home to around 24,000 people, most of whom speak Papiamentu as their first language. The main sources of income are tourism and salt extraction, and the island is a popular destination for diving holidays and cruise ships.
Since 2010, Bonaire has been a special municipality, where the island council is the highest administrative body responsible for local legislation.
Executive power is held by the island deputies appointed by the island council, which is chaired by the Governor.
The island boasts a relatively large amount of nature.
Situated to the north of the island is Washington Slagbaai National Park, which is home to cactus forests, aloe fields, rock formations, salt lakes, limestone caves, sand dunes, blowholes and crumbling limestone terraces.
Back in 1969, the 4,200-hectare park became the Netherlands Antilles' first natural park.
The Bonaire National Marine Park has been a legally protected underwater park surrounding the entire island and the uninhabited island of Klein Bonaire (“Little Bonaire”) since 1979.
The 6600-hectare park also has a coral reef, sea grass and a mangrove forest. Klein Bonaire itself is also a legally protected nature reserve. This coral reef-lined islet is home to salt lakes where red flamingos forage and important sea turtle nesting sites.
About Butterflies:
Butterflies are an order of winged insects, and there are around 160,000 known species here in all.
The collective name is Lepidoptera, which comes from Greek, ‘lepis’, meaning scale and ‘ptera’, meaning wings.
And so Lepidoptera literally means ‘scaly-winged insects’.
Indeed, the wings of butterflies are covered with scales that absorb light in different ways, resulting in the visible colours and markings.
Of all the butterfly species in the world, around 265 are found on the Caribbean Netherlands, a significant proportion of which can be found on Bonaire.
All of these species feel at home in the island's warm and tropical climate, but the size of butterfly species observed here varies widely.
For example, the hawkmoth has a wingspan measuring up to 15cm, while the smallest lycaedinae do not grow beyond 2cm.
The wingspan also depends on the time of year and the butterfly’s growth habit as a caterpillar. Many diurnal butterflies stand out for their variegated colours. The vast majority of butterflies are seen as useful, harmless animals because they are pollinators that are unable to sting and bite.
The Experience nature – Butterflies on Bonaire stamp sheet:
All of the butterflies are featured in their natural habitat on their own stamp.
The following ten butterflies are featured - the little yellow, hanno blue, mimic, monarch, fiery skipper, white peacock, cracker, disjunct scrub-hairstreak, great southern white and gulf fritillary.
All butterfly photos are included in a graphic layer with circular shapes that are also visible on the sheet edge.
Some images also continue onto the adjacent stamp and sheet edge.
In several places on the stamp sheet, the designer has added graphics from symbols on old topographical maps.
These symbols indicate landscape forms, contour lines, plantings, soil structures and watercourses, for example.
The design also features an additional transparent layer with monochrome images (both white and in colour) of typical flora and fauna from this area.
The monochrome images are rendered almost abstractly, running across the perforations and connecting the stamps with each other and the sheet edge.
The following butterflies and plants are featured - the fiery skipper (top left), cracker (top right), a flowering cordia alba and underneath it a peacock flower (centre), the succulent krapéwiwiri plant (centre left), passionflower butterfly (bottom left) and the passion flower’s leaves and flower (bottom right).
DIN 2014 was used for the typography.
This font was designed by Vasily Biryukov from Bulgaria and released by Paratype in 2015.
Designer Frank Janse has used the captions on the stamp sheet to creatively and humorously express his associations with the names, characteristics and appearance of the butterflies featured.
Over the next few years, PostNL's Experience Nature series will focus on the flora and fauna of the Caribbean Netherlands.
Bonaire takes centre stage in the four issues released.
The custom design is guided by the bold colours found in Caribbean nature.
Technical details:
Issue Date: 12.02.2024
Designer: Frank Janse, Gouda
Printer: Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé B.V., Haarlem
Process: Offset
Colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK)
Size(s):
Stamp Size: 40.00 mm x 30.00 mm,
Sheet Size: 122.00 mm x 170.00 mm
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For interesting posts from the Caribbean Netherlands on "Experience Nature":
For interesting posts from the Caribbean Netherlands on this blog:
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6) 100 Years of Nature & Environment Protection, Luxembourg: Commemorating the Centenary Anniversary of the "Letzebuerger Natur a Vulleschutsliga a.s.b.l. (Luxembourg Nature and Bird Protection Society):A 0.80 Euro Stamp issued by Luxembourg Postes (Post): Date of stamp issue: 10.03.2020
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Links:
Posts on Aruba on this blog:
Posts on SEPAC issues on this blog:
Posts on Finland on this Blog:
Posts on Sweden:
Links:
The undernoted two links will take you to our blog "Footloose" for two interesting posts written by me on the Dutch presence in Sadras in the 17th Century AD:
5) City of Bruges (or Brugge), Belgium: 20 Years as UNENCO World Heritage Site: A 20 Euro Silver Proof Coin issued by the Royakl Dutch Mint under licencing of the Royal Belgian Mint, on behalf of the National Bank of Belgium: Coin issue date: 26.02.2020
6) 100 Years of Nature & Environment Protection, Luxembourg: Commemorating the Centenary Anniversary of the "Letzebuerger Natur a Vulleschutsliga a.s.b.l. (Luxembourg Nature and Bird Protection Society):A 0.80 Euro Stamp issued by Luxembourg Postes (Post): Date of stamp issue: 10.03.2020
7) Celebrating 25 Years of listing on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Luxembourg: A Commemorative Stamp of 0.80 Euro issued by Luxembourg Postes (Post): Stamp issue date: 10.03.2020
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Posts on SEPAC issues on this blog:
Links to Posts on Turks and Caicos Islands:
Links to Posts on Curacao on this Blog:
For some other interesting posts on Currencies of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, please visit the following links:
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19) A new Generation $100 Polymer Banknote, Trinidad and Tobago with enhanced security features to "raise the bar" for counterfeiters & unscrupulous elements: Banknote circulation date: 09.12.2019:
20) Festival di Tumba (Carnival of Curacao), Curacao: "50th Edition of the Curacao Carnival/Festival" held from 27-31.01.2020: A set of six Commemorative Postage Stamps brought out by Cpost (Curacao Post) on 20.02.2020
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Links to Posts on Curacao on this Blog:
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