Bonn, 31 October 2016 - On the occasion of 20 years of the UN in Bonn, the City celebrated UN Day on Saturday, 29 October on the market square.

This year’s celebrations focused on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were adopted at the UN-summit in New York in September 2015. The 19 UN organizations in Bonn displayed an exhibition and activities to highlight their contribution to achieving the SDGs.

Under the theme “Shaping a sustainable future”, UN agencies, IGOs, Federal Ministries and agencies, research and development institutes as well as NGOs highlighted their linkages to the global sustainable development agenda. The Bonn Convention took the opportunity to introduce the theme of the next Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CMS COP12) in Manila in October 2017 with a special attraction.

The CMS Family invited people to transform themselves into an endangered species by donning the mask of an antelope, marine turtle, snow leopard, bat or a puffin and have their picture taken. Children enthusiastically took on a new animal identity and so did people from other age groups. Political decision-makers also ventured into new terrain. The Lord Mayor of Bonn, Ashok Sridharan, changed into a snow leopard while the European Affairs Minister of North Rhine Westphalia, Franz-Josef Lersch-Mense, became an antelope.

The COP 12 slogan “Their Future Our Future” shows the connectivity of migratory animals and humankind as we share a single planet. Working towards a sustainable future is not only an investment in biodiversity but in human life as a whole.

UN Day was preceded by the UN-Talks on Friday, 28 October, in the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik (House of the History of the Federal Republic) where UN agencies presented their contribution to the SDGs. EUROBATS Executive Secretary, Andreas Streit, represented the CMS Family at the event.