World Environment Day celebration in Brussels

The UN in Brussels Team celebrated WED 2012 in the parc du Cinquantenaire as part of the annual festival organized by the Brussels Institute for Management of the Environment (IBGE) on Sunday 3 June 2012.

Besides information material on the UN and the environment, and on Rio+20 in specific,  the UN information stand played into this year’s theme of sustainable food, by illustrating the importance of bees for biodiversity and food production. This included a children’s food tasting activity, whereby easy to serve children recipes on the basis of honey were demonstrated.. Also, bee friendly plants were exposed and seeds for bee-friendly flowers were distributed. To help children understand the process of pollination by bees, these were invited to an educational treasure hunt inside the two tent stand, and could create small bees at the stand of Artigraf that were hung onto our tent’s ceiling to create a ‘buzz’. In exchange, the children were given certificates, UN buttons and seeds in order for them to plant bee-attracting flowers themselves.

The UN closely collaborated with the NGO Artifgraf for the production of the bees, as well as the decoration of the tent. On its walls sustainable food pictures were displayed from all counties of the world with imaginative national flags, a creation by 69 pre-school and first class primary school children from Uccle (Brussels).  

Despite the bad weather – rain all day – an estimated 300 children took part in the different activitites we proposed. Overall, the festival with its more than 50 information stands, cooking sessions, and other activities aimed at raising public awareness on sustainable food in specific and an environmental friendly lifestyle in the city in general, is estimated to attract yearly some 20.000 visitors.