Winners of UN World Wildlife Day poster competition

The DEA is the sponsor of the UN World Wildlife Day 2016 (WWD2016) poster design competition, as South Africa is the host country of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES CoP17. The South Africa government will provide return air tickets to the winners to fly to Johannesburg in September to attend CITES CoP17.

CITES Secretary-General, John E Scanlon, said, “The World Wildlife Day poster competition has helped to raise awareness about wildlife conservation, particularly the challenges facing elephants, in a very creative way. People from right across the globe have used their artistic talents to graphically express their support for wildlife, which is a great inspiration to all of us.

“Participants in the competition have come from all regions and from a wide range of ages, from children in kindergarten to retirees, from amateur art lovers to professional designers. Some entries are truly inspiring and very well illustrated the theme of WWD2016 ‘The future of wildlife is in our hands’.”

“Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs of South Africa, said, “The government of South Africa is pleased to sponsor the World Wildlife Day poster competition to help raise awareness of wildlife conservation. We look forward to welcoming the three winners to Johannesburg to witness CITES CoP17, where crucial discussions will take place around the regulation of the international trade in wild animals and plants.”

The key message of WWD2016 is that we, the human beings, hold the future of all wildlife in our hands; failure to take actions now will have immediate, sometimes devastating, consequences for species of animals and plants. The poster designs received by the CITES Secretariat communicated this message very powerfully using images.

Winners

1. Patrick George, UK
2. Yang Lijie, China
3. Nabil Mendjeli, Algeria

Finalists

1. Nadezhda Zakharova, Russia
2. Simon De Meulenaer, Belgium
3. Jim Jourdane, France
4. Victor Otieno, Kenya
5. Yingbo Qiao, US
6. Abdelmonem Amin, Egypt
7. Maria Timofeeva, Russia
8. Nayana Rathmalgoda, Australia
9. Pavlova Olga, Russia
10. Mogen Taylor

Children’s work

1. Raima Gupta Age: 12, India
2. Yevgeniy Siunikov Age: 14, Russia
3. Farzona Majidiy Age: 8, Uzbekistan
4. Platonova Dariya Age: 9, Ukraine
5. Valeriya Nicolaeva, Russia

Judges

Six judges collectively selected the finalists and winners, they were:

• Alexandra Khamitova, an intern working at the United Nations, representing the youth

• Aloys Lolo, Geneva-based cartoonist, representing professional designers and artists
• Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs, Department of Environment, South Africa, representing the sponsoring government for the poster competition and the host country of CITES CoP17
• John E Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General, representing the organiser and UN partners for WWD2016
• Livia Firth, Director of Eco-Age, a brand consultancy, representing the private sector

• Richard Lee, WWF-International, an official partner of WWD2016, representing the civil society

“It was so much fun to be a judge on this wonderful competition. We had an incredible amount of entries - from all ages and backgrounds and countries. I was so happy to see so many children also to submit - they are the ones we need to think about when we are depleting the earth resources at such a pace,” said Livia Firth, director of Eco-Age, one of the poster competition judges.

“We sincerely thank everyone who has participated in this year’s World Wildlife Day competition and we warmly congratulate all of the finalists and winners,” concluded Minister Molewa and Secretary-General Scanlon.

For more information, go to https://cites.org/cop17.