2008 Equator Prize launched
The UNDP-led Equator Initiative is pleased to open nominations for the 2008 Equator Prize, which will be presented in October 2008 at the World Conservation Union’s Congress in
The biennial Equator Prize honors outstanding community projects that reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, focusing on topics as diverse as natural medicine, ecotourism and organic agriculture.
Praising the initiative, UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş says, “The Equator Prize showcases some of the most innovative community work of our generation and is critical in emphasizing the strong connection between local solutions and international environmental policymaking.”
Twenty-five community organizations will receive the award, including US$5,000 each. Five of these communities will receive special recognition and an additional US $15,000. All winners will have the opportunity to showcase their work at the Congress.
Nominees are welcomed from community-based organizations, indigenous groups, community-based enterprises, and non-governmental organizations located in countries within the Equatorial belt. Nominations will close May 31, 2008.
Past Equator Prize winners include Alimentos Nutri-Naturales, a women-owned and run Maya nut processing business in Guatemala, the Genetic Resource, Energy, Ecology and Nutrition (GREEN) Foundation, which works to conserve biodiversity and improve food security in the Indian state of Karnataka and Il Ngwesi Group Ranch, a Maasai-owned trust in Kenya’s Laikipia Plateau that has successfully incorporated ecotourism and sustainable land resource management.
Source: UNDP