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On 24 October United Nations
(UN) Day was celebrated for the fourth time since 1996 on
the Bonn Market Square. This year the Media Prize for Development
Policy was awarded. The international city of tents on the
Bonn Market Square was dedicated to the 20th
anniversary of the signing of the Bonn Convention on the
Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).
The Convention and its Agreements presented itself in its
own tent with an exhibition, a film and a great deal of
information about the species under threat. But the embassies,
ministries, non-governmental organisations, scientific institutions
and the UN institutions based in Bonn – all represented
by their Executive Secretaries – that were present in the
other tents also placed the emphasis on migratory species.
The younger visitors were entertained by the Sendung
mit der Maus (a German children’s educational television
programme), a bouncy castle and several life-size models
of whales.
The celebration was opened by Federal President
Johannes Rau, the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation,
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and the Lord Mayor of Bonn, Bärbel
Dieckmann. In spite of the rain that was setting in, the
many citizens of Bonn who attended also followed a video
greeting from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. During the
addresses, Ms Bärbel Dieckmann in particular referred to
the anniversary of the Bonn Convention and emphasised the
outstanding significance for the Federal City of the Convention
as the first UN institution in Germany. As the patron of
the event, Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh and Honorary
President of the WWF sent words of greeting.
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The Executive Secretary of the Bonn
Convention, Arnulf Müller-Helmbrecht, in an interview
conducted by Wolfgang Zimmer (WDR). |
In addition to information
on the conservation of migratory species, the Bonn Convention
tent also contained a display of 15 posters of 150 that
were received as part of a competition among Bonn schoolchildren.
The winning picture by Mechthild Meyer, a pupil at a comprehensive
school in Beuel, will help to represent the Convention officially
in the future. Mechthild, who is about to take university
qualification examinations, won a trip to South Africa donated
by Lufthansa and Global Nature Fund (GNF) and she will take
part in the opening of the Conference of the Parties to
the Bonn Convention, which is being held there from 4 to
16 November this year.
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The winning poster and the other posters that won
money and other prizes (donated by Sparkasse Bonn
and Postbank) were displayed on Deutsche Telekom’s
homepage at until the end of 1999. The prominent jurors,
such as the Head of the United Nations Environment
Programme, Prof. Dr Klaus Töpfer, Former Federal Foreign
Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the President of
the environmental foundation WWF Germany, Karl-Albert
von Treuenfels, the Head of Corporate Communications
at Telekom, Jürgen Kindervater, and the Lord Mayor
of Bonn Bärbel Dieckmann voted via this internet page. |
Many visitors dropped in on the Bonn Convention
tent and were able to gain information on the objectives
and successes of the Treaty.
But the presentation not only met with active
interest among the Bonn citizens, Bärbel Dieckmann and Heidemarie
Wieczorek-Zeul visited the Bonn Convention tent during their
tour around the event and in their talks with the Executive
Secretary of the Bonn Convention, Mr Müller-Helmbrecht they
emphasised the need for international action in order to
protect migratory species across borders.
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Word of greeting by His Royal Highness Prince Phillip,
the Honorary President of the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF) on UN Day 1999 on the Bonn Market Square:
It is a great pleasure and honour
for me to be invited to Bonn as patron of the United
Nations Day. Since the signing of the UNO Charter
in October 1945, the United Nations and its many subordinate
organisations have made a valuable contribution to
securing peace in the crisis regions of the world
and to human development. The Convention on Migratory
Species, which was signed in Bonn 20 years ago, has
developed into one of the most important international
initiatives for the conservation of species. For understandable
reasons, the peoples of the world have decided to
live in separate national states. This may be appropriate
for us, but for animals, whose survival has always
been dependent on them being able to move freely across
national borders and oceans, this does not make any
sense. Individual countries can do a great deal to
protect their native wild animal species; but to secure
the survival of migratory species the states have
to act jointly. All animals of these species need
semi-natural habitats at the start and end of their
migrations as well as safe resting places on their
frequently very long and strenuous migratory routes.
I am therefore very happy that United
Nations Day 1999 in Bonn is drawing particular attention
to the 20th anniversary of the Bonn Convention
and its important task of conserving countless species
of migratory mammals, birds, fishes and insects. |
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