Princess Lalla Hasnaa, sister of King Mohammed VI and Chairwoman of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, presided on Sunday over the ‘2009 Clean Beaches’ Trophy Awards Ceremony. During this ceremony,which marks the 10th anniversary of “Clean Beaches” programme, Princess Lalla Hasnaa read a message addressed by HM King Mohammed VI, in which the Sovereign praised the work carried out by the Foundation.

On the same occasion Princess Lalla Hasnaa handed the trophies to the winners in recognition of their efforts to preserve Morocco’s beaches and protect the environment. Princess Lalla Hasnaa also visited an exhibition organized by partners of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, then the Princess attended the screening of a film entitled “ten years of clean beaches,” before handing awards to the Foundation’s economic partners. On the same occasion which was marked by music and theatre shows, Princess Lalla Hasnaa followed the presentation of the Foundation’s institutional spot.

Mademoiselle Lilo Moroccan Royals Awards, Environment, Lalla Hasnaa, Patronage

ammonnews.net

 HRH Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein, the honorary chairman of the Al Shajarah Foundation, honored last Monday at King Hussein Club in Amman supporters of this Foundation.

Mr. Fuad Srouji, the Foundation’s director, Khalid Irani, the Minister of Environment, and HRH Princess Basma bint Ali, the founder of the Royal Botanic Garden, were also present at the lunch.

The Shajarah Foundation was created in June 2006 under the patronage of Prince Hamzah, who often collaborates with them. The Foundation has reforested different places of Jordan during these years with the support of Zain Company, Toyota, the Governorates of Jerash and Madaba, and the Dutch embassy.

salma Jordanian Royals Environment, Jordan, Prince Hamzah

On Monday, Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands attended a meeting of the ‘club of Rome’ in Amsterdam. Former president of the USSR, Michael Gorbatsjov, also attended the meeting, as he is a honorairy member of the club.

Click on image to see picture at PPE

The club of Rome is an association that was founded in the late 60-ties by European scientists who were worried about the state of the world. During the Global Assembly, a two day conference of the club that was held in the music building near the IJ river (Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ) was the last in a series of seven meetings that had to prepare the climate summit in Copenhagen, later this year. The theme of the conference was climate, energy and economic recuperation.

After the conference the queen took her time to talk with former president Gorbatsjov, as can be seen in this clip from the local television station AT5. Apart from the scientists and politicians, the conference was also attended by prince Carlos of Bourbon-Parma, a nephew of Queen Beatrix. The prince recently announced his engagement to Annemarie Gualthérie van Weezel.

Click here to go to the website of the club of Rome. And click here for the current events thread of Queen Beatrix.

Marengo Dutch Royals, Italian Royals Bourbon-Parma, Environment, Mikhail Gorbachev, Prince Carlos, Queen Beatrix, USSR

Click here to see the image from Billed-Bladet

Princess Marie yesterday opened a UNESCO environmental conference for school leaders from both Asia and Europe in Soenderborg.

The 100 educationalists will be working together on joint projects over the internet to help better the environment, which is, as Princess Marie said, very relevant with the climate summit being held in Copenhagen next month.

For more information, please see this thread.

alex001 Danish Royals Environment, Princess Marie, UNESCO

 In a recent article in ’Autopia’, Tony Borroin posited the extreme notion that Prince Charles would become the first carbon neutral Monarch.  It, and related eco matters have been exercising the “Grrrrrrrr .  .  .  .  the Royal Family are absolutely the bigest eco-wasters of all time” Piety Brigade.

Click to see the image at Wired.com

Each and every appearance by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall is scrupulously turned inside out, upside down and thoroughly shaken to ensure that every single possible carbon toe-print has been exposed,  trumpeted from the banner headlines of the leading rags and mags.  Their subsequent ringing and stinging denunciations of Charles  have all the  the stirring righteous rhetoric of a 19th Century Preacher exhorting sinners to repent!

Well now it’s official, Charles really does practice what he preaches, which is a damned sight more than the aforementioned journo’s and most of their trusty disciples.

MARG British Royals Environment, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales

Click here to read an article at royalblog.nl

At the request of Tokyo’s Governor Shintaro Ishihara, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has asked Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, to represent Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. (See also this post.) He has invited them to accompany Tokyo’s bid officials to Copenhagen where the vote on the host for the 2016 Olympic Games will take place on October 2. In the past, the support of heads of state, like Tony Blair for London 2012 or Vladimir Putin for Sochi 2014, has played an important role in bringing the Olympic Games home to their cities. Accordingly, Tokyo’s rivals for the Olympics 2016, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro, are rumoured to have asked their respective heads of state to attend. This is why Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, the head of the Olympic bid committee, has deemed it “absolutely necessary to solicit kind help from the imperial family for the benefit of the Japanese people and for the history of Japan.” Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Denmark, Environment, IOC, Olympics, Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako

 Earlier this month on a on a visit to Scotland the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay conducted two very different engagements in one day with projects dear to their hearts. At the launch of an eco-friendly education centre Charles took the opportunity to share the difficulties of being an unwitting trailblazing eco-warrior. Long before most of us ‘Boomers’ had given a passing thought to the ramifications of oodles of chemical “improving” our veggies . . . we were just happy to cut down on the slugs and weeds and chopping down any old tree for no other reason than it was in the way. 

Meanwhile Charles, the budding environmentalist, was taking a hiding to nothing with the abuse heaped on his unsuspecting head.  That he finds it in him to share about “the enormous degree of   abuse” this engendered with any degree of equanimity and come out the other side with wit and humour to encourage his fellow gardeners and budding environmentalists says a lot about the man he has become.  That he and the Duchess then proceeded to “get down and dirty” planting trees is just the cherry on top of the icing on the cake!

 Their other engagement that day was what is fast becoming their best double act, a morale-boosting visit to the troops.  In this case at the Black Watch’s Barracks at Fort George to greet the families of Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (of which Charles is Royal Colonel), who left in March for a six-month tour. Read more…

MARG British Royals Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Duke of Rothesay, Environment, Military, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Scotland

From the TRF avatar collection

Click for the article at the Daily Mail

 It is a little difficult for many to reconcile the picture of Prince Charles the “Conservationist” with Prince Charles the “Dalek” . . . . . . Exterminate . . . . . . exterminate, well you get the picture.  Yet we live in a world where the delicate balance of our eco-systems are at war with man, and man’s strokes of sheer genius in pursuit of greater excellence often leaves us just plain gasping for air.

Grey Squirrels, that “cute” factor is right up there with all and every animated Disney animal character ever lucky enough to make it on screen but, and this is a biggie, Grey Squirrels aren’t.  Cute that is.  They are in fact vermin and the reason they are disease carrying deafforestation  ambassadors is because they just plain don’t belong there!  Some budding mensa candidate decided they would look just loveryly in the garden and imported them to populate said garden, now known as Desolation Downs.

Much the same thing happened with Possums in New Zealand, where the only good one is road-kill, and in Australia they are cute and protected and they belong !

 Charles is telling us a few home truths.  and it seems he is more than ready to front the unpalatable truth.  Being a tree-hugger means making some hard choices,  and if we don’t try and redress the balance there really wont be an awful lot of trees left to hug!

To read more about Prince Charles’s opinion about the environment in general and grey squirrels in particular, see this thread.

MARG British Royals Animals, Environment, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales

 It was a father-daughter double on Wednesday May 20th in Sweden, when King Carl XVI Gustaf and his eldest daughter Crown Princess Victoria attended an event together at the Tyresta  National Park and Nature Reserve.

Click to see the image at royalcourt.se

The event was the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF)’s annual meeting, so the location was completely fitting of the occasion. As the President of the Trustees for the WWF, the King led the meeting; before a talk on nature in 2009 and national history was given by the wildlife manager Peter Westman.

The event concluded with an excursion to the area of the Great Forest Fire of Åva and Stensjödal back in 1999. The King and Crown Princess posed for some photos on the lake, and even with the drab grey weather, Victoria managed to pull out a smile for the photographers. One cannot say the same for Papa Carl though…

Click here to read more about the event.

JessRulz Swedish Royals Carl XVI Gustaf, Environment, Patronage, Princess Victoria, World Wildlife Foundation (WWF)

  The three heirs to the Scandinavian thrones of Denmark, Norway and Sweden will embark on a six-day trip to Greenland later this month, to gain insight into how climate change is affecting the nation and its people.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden will travel aboard the HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen ship from Kangerlussuaq, in south-western Greenland, through Disko Bay where they will observe the changes to the natural environment that climate change has caused, and listen to lectures on the affects on the Artic environment.

The trio will be accompanied by several internationally renowned researchers, and will also visit Qeqertarsuaq and Ilulissat. Various research stations will be visited along the visit, which runs from May 27th to June 1st.

The visit follows the heirs’ June 2008 visit to Svalbard in Norway, which also focused on climate change.

The thread, which will contain more information and images as they come about, can be found here at TRF.

JessRulz Danish Royals, Norwegian Royals, Swedish Royals Climate Change, Environment, Greenland, Prince Frederik, Prince Haakon, Princess Victoria