Europe

UNEP Regional Office for Europe (ROE)

World Environment Day – Forests: Nature at Your Service

All in all, World Environment Day celebrations in Europe were a definite success this year, with many open events taking place in Geneva, Moscow, Brussels and Vienna.

The Regional Office for Europe opened celebrations as early as 31 May, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, with a media briefing on forests. The objective of the briefing was to raise awareness in the media of the current trends in forest development in Europe, the key challenges and opportunities that the European forestry sector presents. UNEP ROE have invited and confirmed participation of prominent speakers from key institutions working on forest issues, (e.g. Forest Europe, EFI, UNECE, FAO, etc.) including UNEP’s own experts. The event roused significant media attention, with the list of journalists attending including the Spanish EFE, the French AFP, the Swiss ATS and Le Courrier, the Japanese Kyodo News, and also Kuwait and Vietnam news agencies.

Following the briefing, on 5 June in Geneva, the Geneva Environment Network, jointly with UNHCR organized guided nature tours and quizzes on forests for children and parents by lake Geneva, thanks to the sunny weather. On June 6, GEN organized a roundtable on this year’s WED theme ‘Forests: Nature at your Service’ with representatives from CITES, WWF UNFF, UNREDD and UNECE/FAO Timber section. The activities in Geneva closed with a screening of the film ‘Vanishing of the Bees’.

In Moscow a special event focusing on forests was organized by UNEP jointly with UNIC on 3 June. The core element of the event was unveiling of the exhibition mounted by the Russian Museum of Forest of the Federal Forestry Agency. Opening remarks were delivered by Alexandre Gorelik, Director of UNIC Moscow. Also, as in the previous year, 2011 saw the “Н2О” environmental film festival organized by the UN Office in Russia and UNDP jointly with the producer company Infiniti Film&Media and “35mm” cinema house. The programme of the festival included five documentaries on environmental issues, round-tables with Russian and international experts, as well as several side-events.

Meanwhile the WED celebrations in Brussels began on 5 June with a Party at the Parc Cinquentenaire followed by a picnic and music concert with the appearance of special guests UN Youth Ambassador and Disney star Monique Coleman and comic book hero Marsupilami.

In Vienna, for the third year running, the Austrian NGO "die Umweltberatung" (Eco Counseling Austria) in cooperation with UNEP Vienna, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management held World Environment Day Talks on 7 June. The Talks on the general theme “Chemistry takes Responsibility” drew attention to the complex interlinkages between the chemical industry and the environment and explored if and how the chemical industry can operate in a sustainable way without negatively impacting the environment.