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NAIROBI, 28 May 2001 - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today that Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam (YAWA) of Malaysia, has been elected to the prestigious ranks of its Global 500 Roll of Honour for outstanding contributions to the protection of the environment. Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam or Children's Environmental Heritage Foundation is one of 18 individuals and organizations to receive this honour in 2001.

YAWA is an organization committed to changing young people's attitudes towards the environment. Set up in 1990 as the Junior Environmental Group of Malaysia, it is now a registered foundation dedicated to instilling environmental awareness in young people through thought-provoking, fun-filled activities.

YAWA has formed a global network with environmental groups in Australia, South Africa, Thailand and Indonesia, and is proposing an air-watch activity starting in 2001 in these countries. It has organized more than 100 activities nationally and abroad, and has taken part in a number of international conferences. It has undertaken beach and lake clean up exercises, as well as tree planting, and has helped children express their environmental concerns through art.

YAWA members participated in painting the longest mural in the UK in 2000, and have organized eco-camps, to help children better understand ecosystems. YAWA has produced an information package entitled Share the Planet and has undertaken research on air pollution and acid rain, whose results were presented at international meetings in 1999 and 2000. In 1995, several members of the Foundation attended the first UNEP International Children's Conference on the Environment in Britain. Inspired by that meeting, YAWA organized its own international conferences, bringing together children form around Malaysia and the world to discuss important green issues.

The first conference was held in 1996 at the Forestry Institute in Kuala Lumpur where delegates learned that it takes millions of years for a rainforest to develop its amazing biodiversity and just minutes to wipe it out. In 1998, the year Malaysia faced a water shortage crisis, the second conference was held in Marang, which taught delegates that water is not as limitless as it seems.

"The winners of UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour are members of a broad and growing environmental movement that is flourishing around the world. They have taken the path that most of us hesitate to take for want of time or caring," says UNEP's Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer. "In honouring the Global 500 laureates, UNEP hopes that others will be inspired by their extraordinary deeds."

The award will be presented in Torino, Italy, at the World Environment Day ceremonies on 5 June 2001. World Environment Day, which is celebrated in some 120 countries around the world on 5 June, was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to focus global attention and action on environmental issues.

Since the inception of the award in 1987, 719 individuals and organizations, in both the adult and youth categories, have been honoured with the Global 500 award. Among prominent past winners are: French Marine explorer Jacques Cousteau; Sir David Attenborough, producer of environmental television programmes; Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway; Anil Aggarwal, the prominent environmentalist from India; Ken Saro-Wiwa, the environmental and human rights activist from Nigeria who was executed for leading the resistance of the Ogoni People against the pollution of their Delta homeland; the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States; Jane Goodall of the United Kingdom whose research on wild chimpanzees and olive baboons provided insight into the lives of non-human primates; and the late Chico Mendes, the Brazilian rubber tapper who was murdered during his fight to save the Amazon forest.

To forge global links and to implement ideas, which can contribute to a more sustainable future, a network of all Global 500 laureates has been formed. Information about this unique network can be obtained at http://www.global500org.

Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam
No. 3 Jalan Rahim Kajai
Taman Tun Dr. Ismail
60000 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: (603) 7727 5592
Fax: (603) 7729 8413
E-mail: sinclair@tm.net.my

Note to Journalists:

UNEP looks to the world community to identify and nominate environmental advocates, so that they too can be recognized for their efforts. Nomination forms can be obtained online at www.global500.org or from UNEP's Headquarters, Global 500 Roll of Honour, Communications and Public Information Branch, P. O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya, as well as from UNEP's regional offices.

For more information, contact:

Ms. Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox Coordinator, Outreach & Special Events Communications and Public Information Tel: (254-2) 623401; Fax: 623927/623692 E-mail: Elisabeth.Guilbaud-Cox@unep.org

Mr. Tore J. Brevik Spokesman/Director Communications and Public Information Tel: (254-2) 623292; Fax: 623927/623692 E-mail: Tore.Brevik@unep.org

UNEP Web Site: http://www.unep.org

UNEP News Release 01/74

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