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| The winning picture of the International Children’s Painting Competition. |
Global Youth Environment Summit in Bandung
Bandung. A
small girl opens a drab curtain showing felled trees and dead animals
against a polluted landscape. She opens the curtain – and her gaze
falls on a colorful forest with a variety of plants and animals. This is
the image with which 13-year-old Trisha Co Reyes from the Philippines
won the International Children’s Painting Competition on the
Environment 2011.
She was now honored,
together with the runner-up and the winners from the various regions, by
Bayer and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) during the
Tunza International Children and Youth Conference on the Environment
taking place in Bandung, Indonesia.
With the United Nations declaring 2011 the
International Year of Forests, the theme chosen for the 2011 competition
was "Life in the Forests". "I wanted to show both sides of the forest:
that which is threatened by environmental destruction and its beauty at
the same time," said Trisha, who had been inspired to paint her picture
by taking walks through the forest in her home country, adding: "Forests
are essential for life, but today their destruction has become a global
problem. We need to value the biggest biological treasure our Earth
possesses so that we will still have forests in the future."
The girl from the Philippines won the
International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment by
beating 4 million rivals from 99 countries, an absolute record in the
history of the competition. When Bayer was first involved in 2004, there
were only around 10,000 entries. Founded in 1991 by the Japanese
Foundation for Global Peace and Environment, the competition has been
continually expanded as a permanent fixture in the global partnership
between Bayer and UNEP and is also supported by Nikon. In the 20th year
of its existence, 600,000 children from all around the world took part.
In addition, another 3.4 million girls and boys from China aged between
six and 14 entered a special competition organized with the help of a
local partner.
Children formulate the claim of future generations
"Since the beginning of the 1990s the world has changed substantially,
and the challenges are steadily increasing – for example with regard
to creating jobs for young people and countering environmental
destruction," said Achim Steiner, Vice-General Secretary of the United
Nations and UNEP Executive Director. "What has remained the same is the
talent and inspiring pictures of children from all over the world that
have caused millions of people over the years who have seen them in
exhibitions and calendars and on postcards and the Internet to stop and
wonder, think again and act."
Addressing the 1,400 or so conference participants from around 100
countries, host Steiner added: "Responsible young people are the United
Nations' most valuable asset."
"We take the fears and hopes expressed by the children in their
paintings seriously. The commitment to environmental protection and
sustainable development, which are both of major importance for future
generations, is an integral part of our corporate philosophy," said Dirk
Frenzel, Head of Public Policy and the Environment in Bayer's
Communications Department at the awards ceremony. "The new record number
of entries in the painting competition, and the Tunza conference and
the great response to it, are further milestones in our global
partnership with UNEP."
The environment conference was opened by two honored guests: the
Indonesian Vice-President Professor Boediono and the Indonesian
Environment Minister Professor Gusti Muhammed Hatta.
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| UNEP
boss Achim Steiner (right) and Dirk Frenzel, Bayer Communications,
presented the prize certificate to International Childrens’ Painting
Competition on the Environment 2011 winner Trisha Co Reyes (13) from the
Philippines at the environmental youth summit in Bandung, Indonesia. |
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| Environmental Envoy Mohammad Bijaksana Junerosano (left) shows Dr. Thomas-Peter Hausner, Senior Bayer Representative (second from right), eco-friendly bags. |
Regional winners
This year, 13-year-old Marylène Schröder from Leer in Lower Saxony won
in the Europe region. "The great diversity of plants and animals is
essential for the balance of our global ecosystem", said Marylène. Like
global winner Trisha, the runner-up – 14-year-old Erina Hashimoto
from Japan, who also won the regional competition in Asia-Pacific –
and the winners in the other regions of the world, the German school
student received a certificate, cash and non-cash prizes and had her
expenses for attending the environment conference paid. The winners in
the other regions were 13-year-old Prerika Chawla from the United States
(North America region), Lara GarcÃa, aged 9, from Argentina (Latin
America and Caribbean region) ,14-year-old Monica Adhiambo Arego from
Kenya (Africa region) and 14-year-old Alya Al Kaabi from the United Arab
Emirates (West Asia region).
2012 competition
The subject of the new painting competition is "Green Communities."
Children from all over the world are invited to commit to paper their
ideas on environmental protection in important living areas such as
towns and cities, forests, oceans or the atmosphere. The paintings
should offer answers to the question: "What don't you like or what makes
you unhappy about the way Nature is treated in these living areas?" And
especially to the question: "What wishes and hopes do you have for
environmental protection?"
The competition is open to all
children who will be between the ages of six and 14 on June 5, 2012
(World Environment Day). Closing date for entries is February 15, 2012.
The paintings must be on DIN A4 or A3 paper. The first and last names,
age, address, telephone number and email address of the entrant or
his/her parent/legal guardian must be written on the back. Any type of
painting materials may be used. The pictures must have been exclusively
painted for this competition.
Entries must be sent by post to
the UNEP Regional Office for Europe at the following address: United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Regional Office for Europe,
International Environment House, 11 - 13 Chemin des Anémones, 6th Floor
A & B Blocks, 1219 Châtelaine - Geneva, Switzerland.
"Bandung Declaration"
More than 1,000 children and young people voiced their unqualified
support for environmental protection at the environmental summit in
Indonesia. With their sights set on the UN Sustainability Conference
"Rio +20" in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, they adopted the "Bandung
Declaration," in which they called on the global community to step up
its efforts in the search for solutions in the interest of sustainable
development. "We […] are united in calling upon world leaders to move
to a sustainable development pathway that safeguards the Earth and its
people for our generation and generations to come," was the first
sentence of the manifesto.
"Reshaping Our Future Through Green
Economy and Sustainable Lifestyles" was the motto under which the young
environmentalists attending the conference on Java discussed fundamental
approaches for tackling environmental problems such as climate change,
extinction of species and the shortage of water and, at the same time,
for opening up new perspectives for economic growth – for example
through renewable energies, resource-saving production methods and
sustainable lifestyles.
"With their enthusiasm, young people can
play a key pioneering role in the matter of environmental protection.
All the participants of the environment summit have shown this – they
are involved in specific projects and, as such, are setting an example.
They convince others and help to make environmental protection becoming
cool in their countries too," added UNEP boss Steiner.
UNEP-Bayer partnership
The painting competition and the environment summit are two out of a
dozen projects that Bayer organizes jointly with UNEP and supports every
year with a total of EUR 1.2 million. The current agreement on the
partnership established in 2004 runs until the end of 2013. Other joint
activities in the areas of youth, children and the environment include
regional environmental summits, the "Bayer Young Environmental Envoy
Program", a photography competition in Central and Eastern Europe and
the "Tunza" youth magazine. (www.bnc.bayer.com)
Almost a billion people live without clean drinking water. We call this
the water crisis. It's a crisis because it only starts with water -- but
water affects everything in life.
Animation by Jonathan Jarvis