World Environment Day 2016

World Environment Day (WED) will take place on 5 June 2016, its theme being Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT). It will be celebrated around the world, with Angola being this year’s host country. The UNEP office in Brussels will participate in this year’s celebrations of WED by organizing two events, one on the 5^th of June and the other on the 7^th of June.

The Brussels Institute for Environment (IBGE) is organizing an event in Parc Cinquantenaire in Brussels on 5 June around the theme of ‘good food’. The event consists of a large information village on Sunday. There will be a huge variety of stands related to this year's local theme of 'Goof Food' (sustainable food) and a large audience of over 20.000 people is expected.

The UNEP office in Brussels has secured a stand/booth in the park along with the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) and UNRIC. While the main theme here will be good food, with a focus on food waste and sustainable consumption and production, a link will be made to the global WED theme of illegal wildlife trade as well.

During the event UNEP will focus on the #NotWasting campaign and give advice to adapt our daily habits to become more sustainable and responisble consumers. Both FAO and WFP are partners in the Zero Hunger challenge and the new #notwasting campaign. We have developed a series of interactive awareness-raising activities with them, such as a cooking demonstration with lentils to promote the international year of pulses, and the possibility for people to discover what types of pulses exist. Outside of our stand we will have a large exhibition by WFP on the Family Meal as part of the Zero Hunger challenge, and a sack race game.  We will also have a quiz inside the tent with information on food waste from the perspectives of Zero Hunger and of what the impact is on our environment, and we will have some tips on how to be a better consumer. In addition, we will invite people to join the International WED celebration theme of illegal wildlife trade, by inviting people to join the “WildforLife campaign.

In addition, a film screening through Ciné-ONU will be organized on 7 June in the context of WED's global theme of illegal wildlife trade. More information can be found here.