World Environment Day can be celebrated in many ways. The following are a selection of inspiring examples of how World Environment Day was celebrated in 2004 with the theme/slogan: Wanted! Seas and Oceans – Dead or Alive?; in 2005 with the theme/slogan: Green Cities: Plan for the Planet!; and in 2006 Deserts and Desertification: Don’t Desert Drylands!
Algiers
In 2006, with the theme deserts and desertification, the choice of Algeria as the host the main international World Environment Day celebrations, was most appropriate.
One of the many events was a workshop in Ghardaia - a 2,000-year-old city in the Sahara desert. The workshop brought together experts who produced a call to action on the fight against desertification, which, in turn, led to the drafting of a charter on the world's deserts.
In Algiers, the UNEP publication Global Desert Outlook was launched. The report highlights the fragileness of desert environments and the pressure they face from forces such as climate change and human activity. UNEP used the occasion to launch a publication on tourism and the deserts. The President of Algeria graced the main event where he delivered a speech on the Day's theme and presented prizes to the winners of UNEP's Children's Painting Competition and to the Algerian journalist who wrote the best articles on the WED theme. In the City centre the public celebrated the Day with a parade, marching bands, flower girls and a hot air balloon which carried the WED slogan Don't Desert Drylands!
BENIN
Cotonou
The Agency of Young Reporters of Environment and Health in Benin (AYOREB) organized a youth-led march to disseminate information about the need to protect the environment on the occasion of World Environment Day 2004. This event was followed by a live debate/conference on the state of the environment in Benin today and the expectations of the youth.
BOTSWANA
Gaborone
A Grey Water Recycling System was launched to mark World Environment Day 2005. This stewater system diverts, collects and treats grey water for re-use and addresses the water situation in Botswana, which is at a critical stage. It is the most practical method to complement the government's initiative for water conservation. Research has shown that this system can reduce domestic water consumption by up to 60 per cent.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Goma
In 2005, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Virunga launched two studies on environmental issues of the region entitled Community Participation in Urban Forestry in Goma: A Participatory Approach and Waste Management in the City. The studies were presented on 5 June to Goma authorities, among others, to be used as tools for planning.
EGYPT
Cairo
In 2006, 5.5 tons of expired and dangerous goods, that had been stored for more than 15 years in the warehouses of the Cairo airport, were safely disposed of and destroyed.
Hurghada
World Environment Day 2004 was celebrated on the Red Sea coast of Egypt from Hurghada to Wadi El Gemal National Park with underwater, beach and mangrove clean-ups and with events honouring those who participated in protecting valuable coastal resources.
In the environs of Hurghada, festivities began in the morning with an underwater clean-up of a snorkeling reef at Small Magawish Island, followed by an afternoon clean-up around a shipwreck on Sheraton Reef. Divers collected six large sacks of bottles, pipes, fishing nets, ropes, plastics and metals. Other heavy items on the sea floor included tyres, iron railings, a porcelain toilet and concrete blocks.
ETHIOPIA
Addis Ababa
In 2005, Midroc Gold Mines organized an environmental awareness training activity for its employees, the local community and schoolchildren. A total of 300 participants took part in the colourful event on 5 June. Some 600 trees were planted, at three different sites, by community groups, the company’s management and its employees. On 6 June, a photo exhibition of the 2004 World Environment Day celebrations was held.
GHANA
Accra
Earth Service, an environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) in Ghana launched UNEP's Plant for the Planet campaign on the occasion of World Environment Day 2004. Some 1,500 people participated in the event including children from various schools, representatives of UN agencies, e.g. the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), government ministries, corporations and the media as well as a number of NGOs.
KENYA
Dadaab
World Environment Day 2004 was marked by week-long festivities in Dadaab Refugee Camp in North Eastern Kenya. The refugees, the host community and aid agencies participated in plastic waste collection, tree planting efforts, solar cooking competitions and football matches. Songs and dances, essays and plays, illustrating the theme and accompanied by colourful banners, produced by the refugees, were showcased at selected venues. The German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) reinforced the message with emblazoned T-shirts and caps; and awarded prizes for environmental achievements during the year.
Kakuma
World Environment Day 2005 was celebrated in the Kakuma refugee camp – a city of 87,000 refugees in northern Kenya – with a tree planting and clean-up exercise with emphasis on reducing plastic bags. The cleanest block received an award. In schools, pupils from 13 years of age and upwards wrote essays on the best way of keeping the environment in and around the camp clean.
Nairobi
Traditionally, World Environment Day in Nairobi has been marked by a variety of lively, vibrant and artistic events on the UN compound, at schools, in local communities, at roundabouts, cultural institutions, universities and in the Karura and Aberdare Forests, just to name a few. Since 2003, artistically painted city buses have been adorned with colourful messages on the World Environment Day theme.
The Kenya Bus Company and Crown Berger Paints offered buses and donated paint for the creative visualization of the 2005 World Environment Day slogan: Green Cities: Plan for the Planet! In 2006, 11 school buses and 13 UN staff buses were decorated with WED posters.
LIBERIA
Monrovia
The Environment Theme Group of Liberia, under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and with the support of UNEP, UNDP and UNMIL, led the 2005 World Environment Day celebrations in the capital city Monrovia with the theme: Green Cities – Plan for the Planet! A Liberian National Police band led a march of approximately 150 World Environment Day banner-wielding EPA staff and students through the streets of the capital. The march culminated at City Hall with the delivery of remarks by the EPA, the UN, academia and the NGO sector. In addition, UNHCR adopted the theme Green your camps: Improve Natural Resource Management whereby major stakeholders planted trees in a transit camp.
LIBYA
Tripoli
In 2004, the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Tripoli, Libya organized a one-week campaign on the environment for the general public under the title Cleaning the Beach in collaboration with the International Organization for Peace, Care and Relief, the Canadian Embassy, scouts and guides, and others. With the support of the private sector, a drawing competition was organized by the Canadian Embassy.
MALAWI
Mulanje
Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust commemorated the Day on 4 June 2005 at the Mulanje Community Ground with a running race for school children. Following the race, speeches, poems and songs based on the Green Cities theme were performed.
MAURITIUS
Curepipe
The aim of the World Environment Day 2004 project in Mauritius was to attract the public’s attention and to get them to actively participate in cleaning fallow land located on Pope Hennessy Road in Curepipe in order to restore the soil’s fertility for future crops. The project consisted of creating a botanical garden, a retaining wall, a path, educational tours and a 180 metre long parking lane to promote sustainable, social and ecological development.
MOZAMBIQUE
Maputo
Environment Minister Luciano de Castro celebrated World Environment Day 2005 by inaugurating a landfill for the disposal of industrial waste at Mavoco in Boane District – 20 km from Maputo. The facility covers 50 hectares, and six will be used in the initial stage. The landfill is owned by the state, through the National Environment Fund (FUNAB), but it was paid for by the aluminium smeltery MOZAL. The landfill can process 3,500 tonnes of industrial waste a month. The disposal of waste from industries in Maputo, Matola and Boane is thus solved for at least the next five years.
NAMIBIA
Windhoek
Environment and Tourism Deputy Minister Leon Jooste announced at the World Environment Day 2005 celebrations that his Ministry, the City of Windhoek and the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry had initiated an environmental management planning programme for the capital. He also announced that the Ministry was finalizing the Pollution and Waste Management Bill and associated regulations. These laws would make environmental assessment mandatory in all developments, including construction projects in towns.
A massive clean-up operation was also organized during World Environment Week (4-10 June) at the dune belt between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. The Environmental Management Section of the Municipality of Walvis Bay, in partnership with Dare Devil Adventures, organized the effort to get the dunes spotless. An appeal was made to 4x4 vehicle owners to assist with the campaign by taking volunteers into the dunes. Quad bikes were made available and the Municipality awarded certificates of appreciation to participants and donors.
NIGERIA
Lagos
In 2005, Earthwatch Foundation organized an Earth Carnival and a green concert. Participants were dressed in colourful clothes depicting various shades of green. A week-long environmental awareness campaign was broadcast by selected TV stations. In 2004, on 29 May to 5 June, Tunde Imolehin (a well-known environment analyst and TV personality) hosted a television festival entitled Earth Summit on one of Nigeria’s main TV stations.
In 2005, the Nigerian Environmental Society organized the Ride-for-life Green Concert. The 5 km trip started as a moving train from the Bar-beach end of Lagos and ended at Ikeja. The event aimed to raise awareness among the public and government authorities of issues, such as coastal erosion, environmental sanitation, safety on wheels, noise and air pollution. Some 50 carefully selected motorcyclists were kitted out with branded T-shirts and caps. The ride was coordinated by officials from the Federal Road Safety Corps.
Surulere
In 2005, Human Rights and Justice Group International, under its Sustainable Environmental Action Programme, carried out a clean-up project in Kirikiri Community in Apapa, Lagos. The aim was to clean up the drainage ditches to prevent flooding and ocean surges. Also conducted was an environmental campaign entitled Know Your Rights, whose aim was to educate communities about the fact that a clean environment is a right and a prerequisite for healthy living.
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Town
In 2004, Cape Town hosted the Youth Environmental School (YES) programme using the Day’s theme. YES hosted the programme from 31 May - 4 June. 48 organizations with 65 speakers presented 77 different activities (e.g. Rivers for Life, Learn Not To Burn, Drug Awareness, Wetlands, Know Your Birds, Children Living on the Streets, Discover Science, HIV/AIDS and You). The programme was free of charge and open to primary and special schools in the City. To ensure that all schools had an equal opportunity to participate, especially marginalized schools, bus transport was made available free of charge. On 5 June, an Eco-Schools Teacher's Workshop, with about 160 teachers, learners and service providers, was organized. During the week a Teachers’ Resource Centre was put in place with 33 exhibitors to assist teachers with learning support materials – most of which were free.
Pretoria
South Africa celebrated National Environment Week to coincide with World Environment Day 2005 under the theme Our environment belongs to all who live in it. The National Assembly debated the subject with special emphasis on climate change and the Kyoto Protocol. Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister, H.E. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, officially designated the first group of Environmental Management Inspectors () nicknamed the "Green Scorpions". EMIs are authorized to carry out a range of enforcement powers varying from routine inspections to search and seizure operations, setting up roadblocks and arresting suspects. The Minister also launched the first in a series of countrywide Clean Air meetings in Boipatong to engage communities worst affected by air pollution.
RWANDA
Kigali
In 2005, Environment Minister, H.E. Drocella Mugorewera, launched environment week, which was dedicated to protecting areas around the River Nyabarongo, so that soil is not washed away into the river.
SOMALIA
Berbera
Every year, Yovenco organizes a ceremony on the occasion of World Environment Day. In 2005, they mobilized the community through the media by putting on plays about the environment.
SWAZILAND
Mbabane
Two weeks before World Environment Day, activities in line with the 2005 theme, were carried out in Mbabane’s main towns and cities. They included: a press conference by the Swaziland Environment Authority; the protection and cleaning of a stream at Siteki Town; the cleaning of a pond at Pigg's Peak Town; a breakfast meeting for Parliament Portfolio Committees to raise awareness about the Day; a tree-planting and clean-up campaign at Manzini City; a launch for the rehabilitation of public parks; declaration of a wetland as a protected area in Nhlangano Town; a seminar at the University of Swaziland; and the main celebrations at Pigg's Peak Town on 4 June.
TANZANIA
Dar es Salaam
In 2005, the Mabibo Women’s Environmental Management Society organized solid waste collection, road sweeping and a tree planting exercise.
TOGO
Lomé
In 2004, the National Consumers and Environmental Alliance of Togo – a network of 13 NGOs – organized a meeting, which touched on issues affecting oceans and seas by the region’s largest industrial companies as well as the agricultural overuse of chemical fertilizers in coastal regions and near rivers. The meeting called on the government and the public to take appropriate action to protect marine ecosystems. On 5 June, more than 4,000 people marched through the main streets of the capital. The hour-long march helped draw the country’s attention to the growing risks to seas and oceans and the need to adopt urgent measures to protect them.
ZIMBABWE
Bindura
In2005, Environment Action Support Youth (EASY) implemented a Zero Waste Initiative at Bindura University by developing and implementing a sustainable waste management plan. They also cleaned up Bindura Town and Hospital.
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