The organizers and jurors of the INEPO-AVRASIYA environmental protection competition for schoolchildren presented the Special International Honorary Award for Environmental Protection to Leyla Aliyeva in her capacity as founder of the International Dialogue for Environmental Protection (IDEA) initiative. Leyla Aliyeva is also vice president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.
The sixth INEPO-AVRASIYA competition was held in Baku on 6-7 April with the support of Azerbaijan’s education and ecology and natural resources ministries, state oil company SOCAR, the Çağ Öyrətim company and the Inepo-Avrasiya environmental public union and the information support of the Public TV & Radio Broadcasting Company.
The competition aims to make the younger generation aware of, and sensitive to, environmental problems and environmental protection, to develop an environmental outlook, to nurture enthusiasm to protect the natural, cultural and aesthetic heritage and to involve children in different projects to tackle environmental issues.

The competition was first held in 2007 and involved schoolchildren from 17 countries. It has since become a regular event with some 400 schoolchildren from 42 countries winning the right to take part in the competition.
Jurors praised 130 out of 350 projects from foreign countries, and 60 out of 294 Azerbaijani projects.
The countries represented in the competition this year were Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Georgia, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Cyprus, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Yemen and Zambia.
Azerbaijan won four gold, 12 silver and 17 bronze awards in the competition.