Sydney, 4 February 2010 – Children have until April 15 to submit their pictures for the 19th International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment. The United Nations have declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity, which is why biodiversity has also been chosen as the theme for this year’s painting competition organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bayer along with other partners.
 
The competition is open to children all over the world who are between the ages of six and 14 on the World Environment Day on June 5, 2010. Attractive prizes await the winners: the global winner, the recipients of the second and third prizes and the winners in the six regions of the world will be invited to the official international award ceremony, where they will be honored by high-ranking representatives of UNEP, Bayer and other organizations and rewarded with prize-money and other prizes.

Bayer has been a partner to UNEP in the field of youth and the environment since 2004. The painting competition is one of a dozen projects that the partners organize annually across the globe.

Brief outline of conditions of participation

There is no restriction on the painting materials used e.g. crayons, colored pencils, felt-tip pens etc.. The pictures must be in A3 or A4 format. On the back of the picture, the forename and surname, age, address, telephone number and, if available, e-mail address of the child must be indicated. The paintings submitted may not have been entered into any other painting competition.

Entries should be submitted by post to the UNEP Regional Office Bangkok:

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP)
2nd Floor, United Nations Building
Rajdamnern Nok Avenue
Bangkok 10200, Thailand

Further information on the painting competition and the Bayer-UNEP partnership is available at www.unep.bayer.com

Note to editors:
Selected motifs from the previous painting competition, which was on the subject of “Climate Change,” can be found on the Internet at: www.press.bayer.com

Contact:
Suzanne Wilson, 02 9391 6009
suzanne.wilson.sw@bayer-ag.de

For more information see www.bayer.com

Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports, which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.