Children from Around the World Invited to Participate in UNEP’s 16th International’s Painting Competition on the Environment: The Theme is Climate Change

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in cooperation with the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer and the Nikon Corporation, invite children from around the world to express their thoughts on climate change through the medium of art by participating in the16^th International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment.

Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time. Recent events have emphatically demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate change. The impacts of climate change will range from affecting agriculture – further endangering food security –, sea-level rise and the accelerated erosion of coastal zones, to increasing intensity of natural disasters, species extinction and the spread of vector-borne diseases.

The Competition has been held annually since 1990 and in that time has received close to 200,000 entries from children in over 100 countries. It is part of UNEP's TUNZA programme for children and youth. 'Tunza' means to treat with care and respect in Kiswahili and it is a wide-ranging programme to involve children and young people in environmental issues.

Children who will be between the ages of 6 and 14 years on World Environment Day 2007 (5 June) from all regions of the world are invited to submit their paintings on the theme to their Regional UNEP Office by 31 December 2006.

Judging takes place in two rounds: UNEP Regional Offices and their partners will select regional winners, while the final selection will be done by UNEP, the Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE Japan), Bayer and Nikon.

Winners for the regional competitions will be announced in April 2007. Winners for the global competition will be announced on World Environment Day, 5 June 2007.

The regional first prize winners and the global winner will each receive a cash prize and a trip for them and an accompanying adult to the 2007 official World Environment Day celebrations in Tromsø, Norway. Other prizes include diplomas, plaques, T-shirts, stationary and drawing sets.

The winning paintings will be exhibited at various venues in Japan, Germany, Norway, and other countries, as well as on the websites of the Competition organizers. In the past, painting competition entries have been used on UNEP posters, post cards, calendars, in UNEP publications or environmental magazines to be distributed worldwide.

After the Competition, all paintings will be stored in the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan.

For full rules – including guidelines on which country belongs to which region – and information on how to submit entries, please see the Painting Competition website: http://www.unep.org/tunza/paintcomp.

Read about 2006 contest winners on the Horizon Solutions Site.

For more information, please contact:

Theodore Oben, Head, Children and Youth Unit

Division of Communications and Public Information UNEP

Tel: +254-020 762 3282

theodore.oben@unep.org

Entries from Asia and the Pacific should be sent to:

UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

United Nations Bldg., Rajdamnern Avenue

10th Floor, B-Block

Bangkok 10200, THAILAND

Tel: (66-2) 2881870