The Convention’s CEPA Programme
Children's Art Exhibition at COP10
Sharing our cultural and biological diversity
through children's art
Through a joint initiative between the Ramsar Secretariat and the host country for Ramsar's COP10, the Republic of Korea (through the Ministry of Environment), a Children's Art Exhibition was suggested to Contracting Parties in the months leading up to the COP. An invitation was sent to Ramsar's National Focal Point as well as to the the two CEPA Focal Points (one government and one NGO) in each Contracting Party, inviting them to come to COP10 with two pieces of artwork from children in their country on the COP theme Healthy wetlands, Healthy people. Korea had agreed to display these pictures during the COP and committed to retaining the pictures for future awareness-raising opportunities in the country.
We would like to thank the 30 Contracting Parties (and of course their young artists), including Algeria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central African Republic, P.R. China, El Salvador, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Suriname, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States of America, for bringing artwork to the COP for display. The pictures do indeed represent the diversity, both culturally and in terms of wetlands and their uses, within the Convention and has produced some excellent artwork.
The pictures were displayed in the green Growth Exhibition Hall which was open to the general public, and the artwork was supplemented by some wonderful artistic creations by Changwon schoolchildren produced as a welcome to countries attending the COP. A range of the pictures submitted and the Changwon creations are shown below. For a number of reasons - the location of the pictures in the hall, the available lighting, as well as the technical limitations of the photographer (!) - not all the countries that brought pictures are represented here and some of the photos are of rather poor quality. For this I apologise. I am currently investigating the possibility of a more professional set of photos of the artwork with Korea.
THE EXHIBITION AREA
THE INSPIRING AND DIVERSE ARTWORK FROM SOME OF THE 30 CONTRACTING PARTIES THAT CONTRIBUTED TO THE EXHIBITION
ALGERIA
BELARUS
BULGARIA
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
CHINA, P.R.
EL SALVADOR
IRAQ
JAPAN
KAZAKHSTAN
KENYA
KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
LIBERIA
MADAGASCAR
NETHERLANDS
NORWAY
PHILIPPINES
PANAMA
PERU
POLAND
SLOVAKIA
SLOVENIA
SURINAME
THAILAND
TURKEY
UGANDA
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UNITED KINGDOM
SOME OF THE WONDERFUL 'CREATIONS' FROM CHANGWON PRIMARY SCHOOLS
TO WELCOME COUNTRIES TO THE COP
Written by Sandra Hails, CEPA Programme Officer, Ramsar Secretariat
