Sponsorship for the 2005 TUNZA International Youth Conference
was generously provided by Bayer AG of Leverkusen, Germany. UNEP and Bayer entered into a cooperation to promote environmental activities for young people.
The joint activities regarding youth and environment are based upon UNEP's TUNZA
strategy and Bayer AG's Global Bayer Programme for Youth Environmental education.
Bayer contributed to the TUNZA conference by sponsoring the travel budget for
the international participants from developing countries.
The Centre for Environment Education (CEE) in Ahmedabad was
established in 1984 as an affiliate of the Nehru Foundation for Development
(NFD) and is supported by the Indian Government's Ministry of Environment and
Forests. The Centre's mission is awareness-creation and education on environmental
issues, aiming at a sustainable relationship between mankind and nature, by
creating and disseminating knowledge. To this end, CEE not only creates expertise
in the field of environmental education, but also develops innovative programmes
and educational materials, testing them for validity and effectiveness. The
CEE provided essential on-site support for the conference. The Government of
India offered tremendous support to CEE in the organization and funding
of the Conference.
The South Asia Youth Environment Network (SAYEN) is a youth
network, set up in July 2001, supported by the UNEP Asia and the Pacific. The
vision of the network is "Sustainable Development in South Asia".
The Centre for Environment Education hosts the Secretariat for the network.
One or two organizations in each of the South Asian countries have been identified
as the National Focal Point (NFP) for the network. The number of SAYEN members
in each country ranges from 20 to 100 people, with over 200 organizations in
the region as SAYEN members. The NFP organizations facilitate SAYEN's activities
in their respective countries. The CEE is also the NFP for India. SAYEN was closely involved in the preparation of the conference, in particular by promoting
the TUNZA conference through the SAYEN website.
