Indonesian student wins regional award for 14th International Children’s Painting Competition

Bangkok, 22 April 2005 - The regional winner of the fourteenth International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment was announced today.

This year’s theme was Green Cities, the motto of World Environment Day 2005.

The winner of the regional painting competition was a 14 year old student from Indonesia, Mahdi Nurcahyo.

The painting competition was jointly organised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Bayer AG and the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE).

For the first time this year, the global painting competition was preceded by regional competitions.

Each of the UNEP Regional Office (Bangkok, Geneva, Mexico City, Washington DC, Bahrain and Nairobi) chose regional winners, such as Mahdi Nurcahyo from Indonesia in the Asia-Pacific, and they will also submit at least 100 paintings to the global competition.

The global painting competition has been held since 1990 and has received more than 160,000 entries from children in over 100 countries.

The winners of the global competition will be announced on 5 June 2005 at the main international celebrations to mark World Environment Day in San Francisco.

All global and regional winners will travel to San Francisco, thanks to the generous financial support from Bayer AG, which is also sponsoring the awards ceremony.

All winners received a certificate and a plaque, and there are special prizes such as drawing kits and environmental stationery.

The winning paintings will be shown in exhibitions in Japan and other countries. They will also be exhibited on the Internet. In future selected paintings will be used on UNEP posters, post cards, calendars, and in publications.

Eventually all painting submitted to the global competition will be held at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan.

This year’s competition is supported by the National Museum of Ethnology (Japan), the Japanese Ministries of the Environment, Foreign Affairs, Education, Forestry & Fisheries and the Japan-Arab Association.

Individuals, organizations, local councils and governments across the globe are taking part in the annual World Environment Day celebrations on or around 5 June.

The main global celebrations are being hosted by the San Francisco in United State of America.

For more information:

Tanawan Sarabuddhi, Information Assistant, UNEP, Bangkok, phone 02-288-2314, email: sarabuddhi@un.org

UNEP ROAP News Release 2005/01