Thu, Aug 2, 2012
Fuel-Efficient Car Given as Prize to Projects
and Events that Inspired and Galvanized
Environmental Action
Indian organization Hand in Hand mobilized
570 volunteers to create a massive Rangoli
carpet based on environmental themes
Nairobi, August 2 2012
- The United Nations Environment Programme
today announced the winners of the World
Environment Day (WED) Challenge 2012, naming
five exciting and innovative projects that
helped raise environmental awareness across
the globe.
Further Resources
World Environment DayFor this year's WED
- the single biggest day for positive action
on the environment worldwide - people across
the world were challenged to pledge an environmental
activity for the chance to win a Kia Motors
fuel-efficient car.
UNEP's goodwill ambassadors
- supermodel and activist Gisele Bündchen,
Hollywood actor Don Cheadle and Chinese
actor and activist Li Bingbing - all recorded
video messages encouraging people to register
their projects.
"Today we celebrate
five inspiring projects, submitted for the
World Environment Day 2012 challenge, that
illuminate the pathway to a transition to
a Green Economy," said UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director Achim
Steiner.
"The most environmentally
friendly travel is by train, bus, carpooling,
cycle or on foot, but in some countries
making an eco-friendly project happen may
need a private vehicle. If so, it should
be fuel-efficient," he added. "This
is why we are awarding such vehicles to
these projects, most of which are run in
developing nations with underdeveloped public
transport networks."
The response to the
challenge was strong, and after much deliberation
UNEP is pleased to announce the following
winners from a raft of inspiring activities:
Fundacion Ecoprogreso
- Cartagena, Colombia
Category: Best Delivers
Effective and Substantive Impact
This group to protect
a mangrove lagoon surrounding the city of
Cartagena, and has organize events such
as a rally for students from the Colegio
Manzanillo del Mar, in one of the communities
that live adjacent to the lagoon. The WED
activities were aimed at raising awareness
of the importance of the mangrove ecosystem
for the local green economy, especially
for ecotourism and sustainable fishing.
Maji Mazuri Centre International
- Nairobi, Kenya
Category: Best Delivers
Effective and Substantive Impact
Maji Mazuri (Good Water
in Swahili) runs an initiative called Green
Heroes, in which motivated and dedicated
youth focus on organizing and improving
waste management in Nairobi's informal Mathare
settlement. They invest their efforts into
sensitizing and educating the community
through regular garbage clean-up events
and other activities. On WED, the group
organized a communal clean-up day, a discussion
on the Green Economy and a football match
that galvanized over 2,000 people.
Sunshine Coast Environment
Council - Sunshine Coast, Australia
Category: Biggest Activity
Mobilization
The Sunshine Coast World
Environment Day Festival is an annual festival
held to celebrate WED, with the objective
of raising awareness of environmental issues
and the unique flora and fauna of the Sunshine
Coast region and promoting the adoption
of sustainable lifestyles and technologies.
The festival is organized by the Sunshine
Coast Environment Council (SCEC), Sunshine
Coast Council and the University of the
Sunshine Coast. First organized, in 1980
the festival is one of the Sunshine Coast's
longest-running events and has grown into
one of the region's largest annual events
- attracting well over 7,000 visitors each
year.
Shidhulai Swanirvar
Sangstha - Dhaka, Bangladesh
Category: Best Supports
WED Theme ? Green Economy: Does It Include
You?
Shidhulai Swanirvar
Sangstha, a non-profit organization, celebrated
WED through a solar-powered boat rally,
a drawing competition on floating schools,
and essay-writing competition on floating
libraries, an exhibition on a two-tier boat
and evening shows of training boats under
the theme, 'The Green Economy in a Changing
Climate - Hope Floats'. The boat rally -
a display of homemade boats, solar power
and the WED theme - was organized on the
theme of Floating Future. Over 15,000 people
participated in the various exhibitions
and activities.
Hand in Hand India -
Chennai (Madras), India
Category: Most Creative,
Unique and Fun
Hand in Hand India is
a development organisation that works to
alleviate poverty through enterprise creation
and a unique integrated community-development
approach. Key environmental interventions
include solid waste management, natural
resource management and environmental advocacy.
For WED, Hand in Hand brought together around
570 volunteers to create a colourful Rangoli
carpet based on environmental themes. Rangoli
is a hand-drawn Indian art which adorns
the courtyards of many houses. This traditional
art form is considered auspicious and is
an eye-catching regular event during festivals.
The 10,000 sq.ft Rangoli depicted ten environmental
themes and aimed to encourage and create
environment awareness.
About World Environment
Day
WED aims to be the biggest
and most widely celebrated global day for
positive environmental action. WED activities
take place year round but climax on June
5. WED celebrations began in 1972 and have
grown to become the one of the main vehicles
through which the UN stimulates worldwide
awareness of the environment and encourages
political attention and action.
Through WED, the UN
Environment Programme is able to personalize
environmental issues and enable everyone
to realize not only their responsibility,
but also their power to become agents for
change in support of sustainable and equitable
development.
In 2010, the dynamic
WED challenge asked people to name baby
gorillas in Rwanda to raise awareness, and
in 2011 celebrities were asked to go head-to-head
in a battle to have their supporters carry
out the most activities, with the winner
then planting a forest. Gisele Bündchen
beat Don Cheadle, helping drive 4,229 WED
activities in 144 countries - ranging from
a bicycle rally in Nepal to a public litter
clean-up in the Republic of Congo, and an
environmental street procession by young
people in Albania. Other celebrities such
as Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder
and Bollywood regulars Priyanka Chopra and
Rahul Bose have promoted the event over
the last few years.
Visit the WED site here:
http://www.unep.org/wed/
