The International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment is organised annually by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer, and Nikon Corporation. It has been held since 1991 and has received over 190,000 entries from children in over 100 countries. This year's competition will focus on "Biodiversity: Connecting with Nature".

Children who are between the age of 5 and 13 years may submit entries. The children’s paintings will focus on concrete actions to preserve biodiversity such as tree planting, marine and animal conservation, restoration of coral reefs, etc.

Preliminary selection will be carried out by UNEP Regional Offices and their partners, while the final selection will be undertaken by FGPE, UNEP, Bayer, and Nikon. The organisers invite children all over the world to submit their paintings to the UNEP office in their regions.

Entry rules:

• Paintings must be done on A4 OR A3 papers. (210 X 295 MM, 11-3/4" x 8-1/4".)
• On the back of the painting the applicant should print: his or her full name, age, birth date (day, month, year), full home address in English (including phone number and email), name of his or her school and grade, and school address (including country code name/phone number and fax number).
• Style of painting is free: crayons, coloured pencils, watercolours, etc.
• Paintings that have been shown or accepted in other competitions will not be accepted.
• Paintings that show a particular person, an organisation, or a brand name will not be accepted.
• Do not include any words or descriptions in the paintings.
• Only hard copies of paintings will be accepted. (Email entries will only be accepted if accompanied by hard copies).

Click here for the addresses of the UNEP Regional offices.

UNEP Tunza website; and email from Joyce Sang to The Communication Initiative on September 2 2009.