UN environmental agency announces children’s art competition on deserts
As part of its ongoing effort to enlist children as the guardians of the future and an inspiration for the present in the fight to save the earth’s environment, the United Nations ecological agency has announced its annual painting competition on the theme of deserts and desertification.
"Children are an important part of our world. They are our future and often they are our conscience,” Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) said.
“Our children provide the spark, the enthusiasm, the vigour and the idealism that this world needs. They know something needs to be done and we must listen to them. One way in which we can listen to them is by giving them the opportunity to express themselves in art – and by taking their art seriously."
The International Painting Competition on the Environment is part of UNEP’s programme for children and youth entitled Tunza, which means to treat with care and respected in Swahili.
Beside UNEP, the competition is supported by the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer AG and the Nikon Corporation. It has been held annually since 1990 and in that time has received over 160,000 entries from children in over 100 countries.
The theme of this year’s Competition, Deserts and Desertification, is also the theme of the 2006 International Year as well as World Environment Day of that year.
The issue of desertification concerns the entire planet, UNEP says, because around one third of the world's population live in drylands and their degradation is a very real threat to people's lives and livelihoods, as well as to the health of the planet as a whole.
Children who will be between the ages of 6 and 14 years on World Environment Day 2006 (5 June 2006) from all regions of the world are invited to submit their paintings on the theme to their Regional UNEP Office by 20 January 2006. Further information can be obtained at the Competition’s website [www.unep.org/tunza/paintcomp15]