Example of how Year of Forests and Logo can be introduced

See report of 20 april 2011:  (Excerpt Below) Main speaker  Jan McAlpine, Director of the United Nations Division on Forests and head of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) Secretariat, based at UN Headquarters in New York. At the Programme in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in Honor of Earth Day, Ms McAlpine demonstrated how the year of Forest and Logo can be introduced. Much the same way the 2010 year was introduced in a fun and informative presentation to many audiences at World Harmony Run events. Jan used a  Question & Answer format and pointed out some interesting facts.

Fact Sheets contain useful information

To supplemet Logo discussion and respond to Q & A from youth and older audiences

Download a PDF version of Fact sheet:  http://www.un.org/esa/forests/pdf/session_documents/unff9/Fact_Sheet_IYF.pdf

Excerpt from report of 20 april 2011 NY Dag Hammarskjold Plaza

A key speaker was Jan McAlpine, Director of the United Nations Division on Forests and head of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) Secretariat, based at UN Headquarters in New York. The UNFF is a body in the United Nations made up of all 192 countries in the United Nations. It addresses all aspects of forests - from complete protection on one end of the spectrum to sustainable use one the other end, and everything in-between, including people, climate change, soils, water and biodiversity, among other issues.

Ms. McAlpine was appreciative to see the logo for the International Year of Forests on our the WHR banner for 2011 and the literature we had available.

She also had a big copy of the IYF logo which had the six official languages of the UN on it (see in background light green) and mentioned that this logo has now been translated into many more languages.  

There was a fun point in the presentation where the symbols on the logo for the year were pointed out by Joan and people were offering comments on the meanings. Our Harmony Run Executive Director, Salil Wilson  was an early "star" in contributing a correct answer. However, there was much good natured fun when Joan had to take away his "star" status later because for a following question he offered a wrong answer. :-)

The shelter, food, animals and biodeversity are easier to get.

Some are surprised to know how much of the medicines we use also come from the forests.   

The most difficult to guess seemed to be the yellow curved lines - which represents the flow of water in some indiginenous peoples drawings and art. All were very good examples of how running teams may also introduce in fun way the year and logo at the different locations and countries the run will be this year.