Subject: INFOTERRA: World Environment Day Dear Colleagues, For your reference, please find the following background information on WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 1998. ------------------------------------------------------- The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) invites people the world over to commemorate World Environment Day on 5 June. The aim of this annual event is to raise environmental awareness, and to encourage global action in the protection of the environment. With the theme For Life on Earth: Save Our Seas, the Day also honours the United Nations International Year of the Oceans. Broadly, our agenda is to give a human face to environmental issues; empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnerships which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future. WHEN DID IT ALL BEGIN World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP. HOW CAN YOU CELEBRATE WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY World Environment Day can be celebrated in many ways, including street rallies, bicycle parades, green concerts, essay competitions in schools, tree planting, recycling efforts, clean up campaigns and much more. In many countries, this annual event is used to enhance political attention and action. Heads of State, Prime Ministers and Ministers of Environment deliver statements and commit themselves to care for the Earth. More serious pledges are made which lead to the establishment of permanent governmental structures dealing with environmental management and economic planning. This observance also provides an opportunity to sign or ratify international environmental conventions. World Environment Day is also a multi-media event which inspires thousands of journalists and broadcasters to report enthusiastically or critically on the environment. It is a visual event with television documentaries, photo and art exhibits, as well as poster displays. It is also an intellectual event for those who organize and participate in seminars, roundtable meetings and symposia. WHERE WILL THE MAIN 1998 CELEBRATIONS BE HELD Each year UNEP, the United Nations agency responsible for coordinating World Environment Day activities, selects a city as the main venue for the international celebrations. This year, this special event will take place in Moscow, Russian Federation. Some of the activities planned by the Government include an International Congress and Exhibit on Water, Ecology and Technology (25-30 May); a Conference on Sustainable Cities (7-8 June); and an International Urban Environment Forum entitled Euro '98 (1-4 June). Parallel to the Euro '98 event, the Government will also host an all-Russian People in Big Cities Congress. The main event to be held on 5 June will culminate with the presentation of UNEP's Global 500 awards to environmentalists, from every corner of the world, who have made outstanding contributions to the protection of the environment. These environmentalists are members of a broad and growing environmental movement that is flowering around the world. They have taken the path that most of us hesitate to take for want of time or caring, and in honouring them UNEP seeks inspiration from their extraordinary deeds. On this World Environment Day, let us examine the state of our environment. Let us consider carefully the actions which each of us must take, and then address ourselves to our common task of preserving all Life on Earth in a mood of sober resolution and quiet confidence. WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY THEMES YEAR THEME 1974 Only one Earth 1975 Human Settlements 1976 Water: Vital Resource for Life 1977 Ozone Layer Environmental Concern; Lands Loss and Soil Degradation; Firewood 1978 Development Without Destruction 1979 Only One Future for Our Children - Development Without Destruction 1980 A New Challenge for the New Decade: Development Without Destruction 1981 Ground Water; Toxic Chemicals in Human Food Chains and Environmental Economics 1982 Ten Years After Stockholm (Renewal of Environmental Concerns) 1983 Managing and Disposing Hazardous Waste: Acid Rain and Energy 1984 Desertification 1985 Youth: Population and the Environment 1986 A Tree for Peace 1987 Environment and Shelter: More Than A Roof 1988 When People Put the Environment First, Development Will Last 1989 Global Warming; Global Warning 1990 Children and the Environment 1991 Climate Change. Need for Global Partnership 1992 Only One Earth, Care and Share 1993 Poverty and the Environment - Breaking the Vicious Circle 1994 One Earth One Family 1995 We the Peoples: United for the Global Environment 1996 Our Earth, Our Habitat, Our Home 1997 For Life on Earth 1998 For Life on Earth - Save Our Seas HOST COUNTRIES OF INTERNATIONAL WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY AND GLOBAL 500 CEREMONY EVENT YEAR CITY COUNTRY 1987 Nairobi Kenya 1988 Bangkok Thailand 1989 Brussels Belgium 1990 Mexico City Mexico 1991 Stockholm Sweden 1992 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 1993 Beijing China 1994 London United Kingdom 1995 Pretoria South Africa 1996 Istanbul Turkey 1997 Seoul Republic of Korea 1998 Moscow Russian Federation UNEP will produce WED information materials, as well as a special edition of our quarterly magazine, Our Planet, with a poster inserted, which will be distributed to all our partners. For further information, please contact: Mr. Tore J. Brevik Ms. Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox Chief, Coordinator, Information & Public Affairs Special Events UNEP Headquarters UNEP Headquarters Tel: (254-2) 62 3292 Tel: (254-2) 62 3401/3128 Fax: (254-2) 62 3927 Fax: (254-2) 62 3692 E-mail: Tore.Brevik@unep.org E-mail: Elisabeth.Guilbaud-Cox@unep.org Please contact Mr. Brevik and Ms. .Guilbaud-Cox directly. Best Wishes, Ms. Beth Ingraham, Information Officer INFOTERRA-Secretariat The Global Environmental Information Exchange Network Division of Environmental Information and Assessment United Nations Environment Programme P.O. Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: (254-2) 624299 or 623273 Fax: (254-2) 624269 Email: beth.ingraham@unep.org or infotinf@unep.org Web: www.unep.org/unep/eia/ein/infoterr - message sent by infoterra@cedar.univie.ac.at to signoff from the list, send an email to majordomo@cedar.univie.ac.at the message body should read unsubscribe infoterra your@email.address -