UNEP's Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer and International Association of Athletics Federations' President, Lamine Diack signed a Memorandum of understading in Turin, Italy on 17 February 2006 .

Both organizations agree to work together on the following activities:

•  Promote environmental awareness by incorporating environmental issues and supporting the monitoring of environmental programmes in the preparation and staging of IAAF competitions;

•  Working together to create mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge between organisers of the IAAF competitions;

•  Implementing environmental activities in developing countries.

•  Implement the UNEP Plant for the Planet Campaign – a global tree planting programme for schools and children. In this respect both parties shall:

• endeavour to plant trees (which will be known as Trees of Peace ) in and around sport arenas and infrastructures with the active involvement and participation of the sports community, including athletes and sport personalities in cooperation with local environment authorities from the selected countries;

• focus the first phase of the project on conflict-affected countries.

IAAF will allocate US$ 5,000 for each selected country to be used to establish tree nurseries for the project.

For more information on the partnership, please contact:

UNEP Sport and the Environment Unit
P.O. Box 30552
Nairobi
Kenya
Tel: 254 20 7623262
Fax: 254 20 7623927
E-mail: sport.environment@unep.org