Nairobi, 3
August 2010 - As the world combats climate
change and pollution, how do Chinese Children
view the future of the environment?
A staggering 2.6 million
Chinese schoolchildren have taken part in
a painting contest run by the Luo Hong Environmental
Foundation in partnership with the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). After
sifting through huge piles of pictures,
the judges have finally chosen twenty beautiful
and striking images as the winning entries.
The young artists will
arrive in Nairobi tomorrow for a special
week of activities and attend an award's
ceremony on 9 August.
The theme of this year's
competition was "Biodiversity: Nature
in Action" and the young artists submitted
an eclectic range of drawings, showing an
impressive artistic flair far beyond their
tender age.
Whether it's a hapless
giraffe struggling to find food above a
cloud of smog, a colourful criticism of
the fur trade or a six-year-old's vision
of a green utopia, the pictures are a compelling
insight into the concerns of China's children
for their environment - and their suggestions
for how to make things better.
The contest was organized
by Luo Hong - one of China's best known
entrepreneurs and a UNEP Climate Hero. Mr.
Luo, the founder of the country's biggest
cake bakery chain as well as a leading environmental
photographer, says he started the contest
to make China's children more aware of their
environment. "I think our small friends
are painting to voice their love of the
environment and their commitment to protect
our planet", said Mr. Luo.
This year, the third
time that the competition has been held,
saw all previous records broken, with over
300,000 more children taking part than in
2008-09. The huge scale of the competition
means that it is now considered by UNEP
to be the world's largest environmental
protection education activity, involving
the largest number of participants.
The twenty winners of
the contest, along with ten teachers and
Luo Hong, will travel to UNEP headquarters
in Nairobi, Kenya, for an awards ceremony
on 9 August 2010. The trip to Kenya will
also include visits to some the country's
best-known spots for observing wild animals.
The children will visit Lake Nakuru and
the Maasai Mara, where they should catch
sight of lions, cheetahs, elephants and
rhinos; providing inspiration, no doubt,
for many more paintings during their stay
in Kenya.
All the winning pictures
can be viewed in the 'Photo Galleries' section
of the official UNEP Facebook page at: http://facebook.unep.org
or via the UNEP Flickr account at http://tinyurl.com/29vqtx9
