June 5th, ‘World Environment Day’ celebrated in Armenia

WWF-Armenia marked ‘World Environment Day,’ which is celebrated by the United Nations Environmental Programme on 5 June every year since 1972. The theme for the 2009 World Environment Day was “Your Planet Needs You – Unite to Combat Climate Change.” This year’s theme reflects the urgency for countries to agree on a new deal on climate change at the climate convention meeting to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009.

On that day WWF-Armenia made a presentation of a film on poaching and organized one week photo exhibition on nature of Armenia at “Moscow” Cinema-Theatre in Yerevan. The film presentation was followed by the award ceremony of the children from the schools of the South of Armenia, particularly from the communities adjacent to leopard habitats. Contest on “Leopard in the eyes of schoolchildren” was held and the best handworks were selected in the nominations of “Leopard friend” and “Leopard guardian” in the corresponding rankings: gold, silver and bronze.

The event was attended by the representatives of the relevant Ministries, state bodies, international organizations, local environmental NGOs, private sector, donors, and ordinary citizens. The day was wrapped up by the official signing ceremony between WWF-Armenia and “Hayantar” (Armenian State Forest Agency) state non-commercial organization and “Armenia Tree Project” (ATP) Foundation on starting the joint forestation works being implemented in the frames of project “Mitigating Impacts of Climate Change through the Restoration of Forest Landscapes in the Southern Caucasus.”

For further information:
Arthur K. Khoyetsyan, Marketing Manager
Tel: (+374 10) 52 47 12 , 54 61 56 (ext. 16)
Email: akhoyetsyan@wwfcaucasus.am