Russian girl claims top prize at UN environment agency’s painting competition

A nine-year-old girl Russian girl has won the first prize in the annual United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) painting competition, beating over 2 million other entries from children aged six to 14 years around the world, the agency announced today.

Ludmilla Baloveva of Siberia finished ahead of 14-year-old Eesha Chavan of India, who took second place in this year’s International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment, with a striking depiction of two planet Earths, a sad globe and a happy globe, according to a news release issued by UNEP.

“What we see in these paintings is that children are aware of the challenges facing the planet,” said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“Given the opportunity, they can contribute to solutions,” added Mr. Steiner. “We can all learn a great deal from the insight children have about our world and our responsibility.”

The competition’s regional awards went to Alice Fuzi Wang, 12 (North America); Li Pik Hei, 13 (Asia and the Pacific); Renzo Marsino, 14 (Latin America and the Caribbean); Ryan D’almeida, 14 (West Asia); Ramy Gamal Abd El Hamed Abd El Razik, 13 (Africa); and Patricia Isabel Jesus Santos, 14 (Europe).

First place in the competition, which was launched jointly in 1991 with the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment, Bayer and Nikon Corporation, includes an award of $2,000, and the six regional winners receive $1,000 each.

In addition to the prize money the winners will receive a chaperoned, all-expenses paid trip to the 2009 Tunza International Children and Youth Conference in Daejeon, the Republic of Korea, next week, where an awards ceremony will unveil the winning paintings.

The award ceremony is a key event of the conference, which brings together more than 800 young people from over 100 countries to discuss the issues of climate change that impact their lives and will impact the future of the planet.