PUMA® and
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Announce Donation Recipients
Proceeds from 'The Play
For Life' Campaign to Fund Conservation
Programs in Africa in Support of the International
Year of Biodiversity
Nairobi, Kenya / Herzogenaurach,
Germany- (July 16, 2010) - PUMA® and
the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) announced, Friday, three major conservation
projects in Africa as beneficiaries of the
'Play For Life' Campaign, a World Cup inspired
partnership to support the 2010 International
Year of Biodiversity.
Proceeds generated from
the campaign will be donated to beneficiary
projects that will help save: African lions
in Zambia (The African Lion: King Without
A Kingdom Project); elephant populations
in the Ivory Coast and Liberia (Support
for the Elephants Project); and gorillas
in Nigeria's Mbe Mountains (Promoting Community
Participation in Gorilla Conservation).
Football fans and the
wider public directed the final donations
by voting for their favorite cause on FACEBOOK.COM/PUMA
and via a UNEP enabled website.
In January 2010, PUMA®
and UNEP formed an alliance to launch the
'Play For Life Campaign', a global initiative
dedicated to raising awareness about the
importance of species and habitat conservation
amongst football fans and the general public
during this World Cup year, which saw the
tournament take place for the first time
in Africa. 'Play for Life' focuses on Africa,
a continent that hosts exceptional biodiversity
and is home to some of the richest and most
threatened reservoirs of plant and animal
life on Earth.
"PUMA has a long
standing relationship with Africa and African
Football, and as a corporation dedicated
to sustainable futures, we could not ignore
the growing environmental challenges that
face the region," said Jochen Zeitz,
Chairman and CEO, PUMA AG. "With 13
sponsored African national football teams,
we were uniquely positioned and honored
to help champion this cause with UNEP. The
global appeal of football made it a powerful
and inventive medium to promote the importance
of biodiversity, engage with millions around
the world and raise both awareness and resources
to help these causes."
The 'Play for Life'
campaign promoted the International Year
of Biodiversity through a combination of
events, public service announcements with
Cameroon footballer Samuel Eto'o, social
networks, PUMA retail and fundraising activities.
Each element of the program encouraged the
public to take action and get involved.
The public, through online voting chose
the three beneficiaries for the campaign
donations.
Satinder Bindra, UNEP's
Director of Communications, said: "Through
this valuable partnership with PUMA, we
are enabling millions of football fans around
the globe to play an active role in conservation.
The 'Play For Life' donations will directly
benefit major conservation projects in Africa.
In the Ivory Coast and Liberia, we will
support a project that focuses on creating
and preserving migration corridors for the
elephants. In Zambia, we will support the
provision of accurate estimates of lion
populations and the development of national
management strategies for their conservation.
In the Mbe Mountains, we will support the
hiring and training of ecoguards and Gorilla
guardians. We hope that this collaboration
will empower ordinary people to play a part
in landmark conservation projects. "
PUMA's main fundraising
vehicle was the revolutionary new Unity
Kit was endorsed by all 4 PUMA sponsored
African national teams. Inspired by the
African landscape, the Unity Kit bespoke
colourway represents the sky, sun and actual
soil samples taken from Cameroon, Ghana,
Ivory Coast and South Africa. A portion
of the profits from the sale of replica
PUMA Unity Kits, Unity Tees, and PUMA Lacelets
will be given to the selected biodiversity
conservation programs.
Event highlights include
the Africa Unity Experience (AUE), PUMA's
official World Cup send-off to Ghana, Ivory
Coast, Algeria and Cameroon. Held in Paris
in May, the series of high impact events
generated fan support, raised funds and
awareness about the importance of biodiversity.
Highlights include a fundraising parcour
with star players, including Cameroon captain
Samuel Eto'o and a rousing speech by Djimon
Hounsou at the evening's concert produced
in conjunction with Africa Express.
Editor Note:
Additional press materials
details about the Play For Life campaign
and beneficiaries, Africa Unity Experience
or Kehinde Wiley exhibition are available
at http://www.puma.digitalnewsagency.com/
PUMA
PUMA is one of the world's
leading Sportlifestyle companies that designs
and develops footwear, apparel and accessories.
It is committed to working in ways that
contribute to the world by supporting Creativity,
SAFE Sustainability and Peace, and by staying
true to the principles of being Fair, Honest,
Positive and Creative in decisions made
and actions taken. PUMA starts in Sport
and ends in Fashion. Its Sport Performance
and Lifestyle labels include categories
such as Football, Running, Motorsports,
Golf and Sailing. Sport Fashion features
collaborations with renowned designer labels
such as Alexander McQueen, Mihara Yasuhiro
and Sergio Rossi. The PUMA Group owns the
brands PUMA, Cobra Golf and Tretorn. The
company, which was founded in 1948, distributes
its products in more than 120 countries,
employs more than 9,000 people worldwide
and has headquarters in Herzogenaurach/Germany,
Boston, London and Hong Kong. For more information,
please visit http://www.puma.com
UNEP
The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) is the voice for the environment
in the UN system. Established in 1972, UNEP's
mission is to provide leadership and encourage
partnership in caring for the environment
by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations
and peoples to improve their quality of
life without compromising that of future
generations. UNEP is an advocate, educator,
catalyst and facilitator promoting the wise
use of the planet's natural assets for sustainable
development. It works with many partners,
UN entities, international organizations,
national governments, non-governmental organizations,
business, industry, the media and civil
society. UNEP's work involves providing
support for: environmental assessment and
reporting; legal and institutional strengthening
and environmental policy development; sustainable
use and management of natural resources;
integration of economic development and
environmental protection; and promoting
public participation in environmental management.
International Year of
Biodiversity
In a bid to curb the
unprecedented loss of the world's species
due to human activity - at a rate some experts
put at 1,000 times the natural progression
- the United Nations is marking 2010 as
the International Year of Biodiversity,
with a slew of events highlighting the vital
role the phenomenon plays in maintaining
the life support system on Planet Earth.
The UNEP-PUMA 'Play
for Life' campaign will support the International
Year of Biodiversity by:
Raising awareness worldwide
about biodiversity and the International
Year of Biodiversity among football fans
and the general public during football events
including the African Nations Cup and international
friendly games
Raising awareness through
Public Service Announcements featuring football
stars
Encouraging the public
to take action to conserve biodiversity
Raising funds through
the Africa Unity Kit and other PUMA Unity
football products under the Yellow "life"
label to support biodiversity projects in
Africa.
Governments Make Major
Advances on Global Agreement on Planet's
Genetic Resources
Montreal, 16 July 2010
– Following seven days of intense and complex
negotiations, and with the financial support
of Japan , the world's governments have
made major breakthroughs on a text of a
legally binding protocol on access to, and
sharing of, the benefits of the rich genetic
resources of our planet.
The draft Aichi Nagoya
Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS)
is now in place, and will be finalized and
adopted on 29 October 2010 at the tenth
meeting of the Conference of the Parties
(COP 10) to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD).
"History will recall
that the Aichi Nagoya Protocol on Access
and Benefit-Sharing was born here in Montreal.
Once again, the Montreal magic has worked
for delivering one of the most important
legal instruments in the history of the
environment movement," said Ahmed Djoghlaf,
Executive Secretary of the Convention.
The two Co-Chairs of
the Working Group, Timothy Hodges of Canada
and Fernando Casas of Colombia, said: "In
Montreal, we witnessed a major breakthrough
in the negotiations. Progress on key issues
is a giant leap toward the objective of
finalizing the Protocol. While much remains
to be done, we are more confident than ever
that the ABS Protocol will be adopted in
Nagoya, next October."
Discussions during the
week focused on the draft protocol text
that was tabled at the beginning of the
ninth meeting of the working group, which
took place in Cali, Colombia, in March this
year. Following this week's negotiations
in Montreal, the structure of this text
remains intact and consensus was reached
on important elements including compliance,
and user measures.
Access and benefit-sharing
refers to the way genetic resources—whether
plant, animal or micro-organism—are accessed
in countries of origin, and how the benefits
that result from their use by various research
institutes, universities or private companies
are shared with the people or countries
that provide them. Ensuring the fair and
equitable sharing of benefits from the use
of genetic resources is one of the three
objectives of the Convention on Biological
Diversity.
In 2002, at the Johannesburg
World Summit on Sustainable Development,
world leaders agreed on the need for an
international regime on access and benefit-sharing.
The 4,000 participants attending the eighth
meeting of the Conference of the Parties,
held in March 2006, agreed to finalize negotiations
as soon as possible and no later than 2010
at the tenth meeting of the Conference of
the Parties to the CBD.
Over 10,000 participants
are expected to attend the Biodiversity
Summit. The high-level segment of this historic
meeting will be held from 27 to 29 October
2010 and will be preceded by a high-level
meeting of the United Nations General Assembly
exclusively devoted to biodiversity, to
be held in New York in September 2010 in
conjunction with the sixty-fifth session
of the General Assembly and with the participation
of Heads of State and Government.
The high-level event
of the sixty-fifth session of the UN General
Assembly, to be held in New York on 22 September
2010, will be an important event to accelerate
the political momentum. The President-elect
of the General Assembly, Mr. Joseph Deiss,
was briefed on the status of negotiations
by the Co-Chairs during his visit on 7 July
2010 to the headquarters of the Secretariat
on the preparation of the New York summit.
Governments agreed to
use the inter-sessional period before the
meeting in Nagoya to advance the negotiations.
Note to Editors:
The Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD). Opened for signature at
the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992,
and entering into force in December 1993,
the Convention on Biological Diversity is
an international treaty for the conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity and
the equitable sharing of the benefits from
utilization of genetic resources. With 193
Parties, the Convention has near universal
participation among countries committed
to preserving life on Earth. The Convention
seeks to address all threats to biodiversity
and ecosystem services, including threats
from climate change, through scientific
assessments, the development of tools, incentives
and processes, the transfer of technologies
and good practices and the full and active
involvement of relevant stakeholders including
indigenous and local communities, youth,
NGOs, women and the business community.
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety a supplementary
treaty to the Convention seeks to protect
biological diversity from the potential
risks posed by living modified organisms
resulting from modern biotechnology. To
date, 156 countries and the European Union
are party to the Protocol. The Secretariat
of the Convention and its Cartagena Protocol
is located in Montreal . www.cbd.int/
Access to genetic resources
and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits
arising out of their utilization: The Convention
on Biological Diversity recognizes the sovereign
rights of States over their natural resources
in areas within their jurisdiction. Parties
to the Convention therefore have the authority
to determine access to genetic resources
in areas within their jurisdiction. Parties
also have the obligation to take appropriate
measures with the aim of sharing the benefits
derived from their use. Genetic resources,
whether from plants, animals or micro-organisms,
may be used for different purposes. Users
of genetic resources can include research
institutes, universities and private companies
operating in various sectors such as pharmaceuticals,
cosmetics, agriculture, horticulture and
biotechnology. Benefits derived from genetic
resources may include the result of research
and development carried out on genetic resources,
the transfer of technologies which make
use of those resources, participation in
biotechnological research activities, or
monetary benefits arising from the commercialization
of products based on genetic resources.
www.cbd.int/abs The documents under discussion
at the ninth meeting of the working Group,
are available at: www.cbd.int/wgabs9/
2010 International Year
of Biodiversity: The United Nations declared
2010 the International Year of Biodiversity
(IYB) to raise awareness about the crucial
importance of biodiversity, to communicate
the human costs of biodiversity loss, and
to engage people, particularly youth, throughout
the world in the fight to protect all life
on Earth. Initiatives will be organized
throughout the year to disseminate information,
promote the protection of biodiversity and
encourage countries, organizations, and
individuals to take direct action to reduce
biodiversity loss. The focal point for the
year is the Secretariat of the Convention
on Biological Diversity. www.cbd.int/2010/welcome/
