Tunza – the sad farewell

honglake

Conference Diary - Day 4 (August 30, 2007)
Tunza – the sad farewell

Day 4 of the Tunza Conference – the day of the sad farewell: Right from early in the morning hundreds of photos are being taken, people embrace and shake hands, and during every break cameras are thrust into other participants’ and guests’ hands. “Can you take a picture of us?” Addresses are being exchanged by the second, and in every corner of the conference venue the sentence can be heard: “We’ll stay in contact.”

Zoom image
The new members of the Tunza Youth Advisory Council.
But even on the very last day the workload did not let up. The agenda included the election of new members to the Tunza Youth Advisory Council (TYAC), who will be in office until 2009. The presentation in the full assembly was staged like a real show. During the breaks between the introductions of the candidates the James Bond soundtrack was played. Voting for the Tunza body took place according to the established United Nations principle: One country, one vote.

TYAC candidate Tuuli Madiberk (22) from Estonia had the most memorable campaign slogan: “I symbolize at least half of the new Tunza logo, since my first name in Estonian means both fire and wind.” When she wasn’t elected, she accepted it with grace: “I’m pleased for the winners,” she said.

Among those was Feng Zhu Wang (21) from China, who became one of two regional representatives for Asia-Pacific. As a new Youth Advisor she sees her main role as being to improve communication. “There are so many success stories showing you what you can do for the environment. I will do my utmost to spread these further.”

Before the election Theo Oben and Eric Falt from UNEP expressed their thanks and said goodbye to the retiring members of the Advisory Council. During the handover, Maurice Odera (24) from Kenya said: “I hope you can take the Tunza Youth Advisory Council to a higher level.”

As one of the regional representatives in the full assembly, Maurice had previously stated that there were different needs in Africa with regard to environmental protection: “Our main problem is poverty. We haven’t got the technology to form networks. We need to develop in order to get a good environment.” All the participants jointly made a vow to support environmental justice and promised to work in particular on behalf of weak and disadvantaged groups. At the end of the session they all chanted together: “We want environmental justice. And we want it now.”

Before they were able to swap memories for one last time at the big farewell party, which took place in the Bayer 04 football stadium ”BayArena”, the participants met for a deeply symbolic event: As part of the “Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign” they planted 200 trees. The oaks, wild cherries, common beeches and hornbeams were planted in such a way that from above they might one day suggest the Earth with their different leaf colours. That will take time, however. “It will be an attractive copse in twenty years,” said the forest warden who was the expert overseeing the tree-planting act.

Press Photos

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The new members of the Tunza Youth Advisory Council.

                               
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Participants planting trees on the last day of the conference as part of the \"Billion Tree Campaign\" of UNEP.

                               
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Participants planting trees on the last day of the conference as part of the \"Billion Tree Campaign\" of UNEP.

                               
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Participants planting trees on the last day of the conference as part of the "Billion Tree Campaign" of UNEP.

http://www.tunza2007.unep.bayer.com/en/ConferenceDay4.aspx

melu

Fengzhu, Congratulations!
[s:55]