UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said the competition served to link the “children of Rio 1992 with those who are children in the run-up to Rio+20.” This year's competition attracted over 600,000 entrants, and the winning entry shows both "a good and sustainable forest and the causes of forest destruction," according to the artist.
27 September 2011: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced the winner of the 2011 International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment, which aimed to link the “children of Rio 1992 with those who are children in the run-up to Rio+20,” according to UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
The International Children’s Painting Competition has been organized every year since 1991 by UNEP and the Foundation for Global Peace and Environment. According to UNEP, this year’s competition attracted over 600,000 entrants. The winning entry, by 13-year-old Trisha Co Reyes from the Philippines, shows both “a good and sustainable forest and the causes of forest destruction,” according to the artist. She added, “Forests are essential for life on Earth, [and] we must treasure the earth’s greatest biological treasure, so that we will always have forests in our lives.”
The winner and the regional runners up are attending the Tunza International Children and Youth Conference on the Environment, convening from 27 September-1 October 2011, in Bandung, Indonesia. [UNEP Press Release]