United Nations-led Equator Initiative Selects Finalists
For Global Biodiversity Conservation Prize
New York, 12 March 2007--The Equator Initiative announced the finalists for its 2006 Equator Prize, honoring 25 extraordinary efforts to harness the equatorial region’s biodiversity to lessen the widespread poverty afflicting the people who live there. The finalists, whose services range from ecotourism and community fishery cooperatives to sustainable crocodile-egg harvesting and ecoagriculture, demonstrate the increasing global recognition of the strong links between poverty and the natural environment. Biodiversity conservation—the preservation of a broad array of plant and animal life in a given area—helps alleviate poverty by nurturing and protecting diverse ecosystems, and using their resources for long-term, sustainable economic and health benefits.
Awarded biennially since 2002, the Equator Prize focuses on community-based initiatives between 23.5 degrees of latitude north and south of the equator that reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Local communities in the developing world are achieving remarkable results in their efforts to promote sustainable economic development and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), creatively using biological resources for food, medicine, shelter and improved livelihoods in ways that raise incomes and protect the environment. The Equator Initiative, led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and joined by civil society, business, governments and communities, champions these efforts.
A jury of eminent persons in the environment and development field will select the five Equator Prize 2006 winners from the finalists, chosen from more than 300 nominations from seventy countries. One Equator Prize will be awarded in each geographical region of eligibility (Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia and the Pacific), one to a community-based project associated with a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one to a project that best exemplifies sustainable biodiversity-based business. In addition to international recognition for their work and an opportunity to help shape international policy and practice in the field, each winner will receive USD $30,000. One finalist will receive a Rare Pride Campaign, an intensive conservation education and social marketing program, to enhance their work and raise the profile of their conservation practices. The winners of the Equator Prize 2006 will be announced in Germany on the occasion of World Environment Day, 5 June 5 2007, at a special event hosted by the Government of Germany.
“Local communities of the developing world are the source of many of the most innovative and imaginative responses to the challenges of sustainable development,” said Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a 2006 jury member and advisor to former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the MDGs. “These communities might have never heard of the Millennium Development Goals. But in many ways, they hold the key to achieving them. By enabling the exchange of best practices between communities, and by bringing the community voice to high-level international discussions, the Equator Initiative is doing a great job of bridging the gap, and, in doing so, it’s helping to ensure that the local example points global policies in the right direction.”
Equator Prize 2006 finalists:
Africa
- Association Songtaab-Yalgré – Burkina Faso
- Pole Pole Foundation/Kahuzi-Biega National Park – Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Kipsaina Crane and Wetland Conservation Group – Kenya
- Shompole Community Trust – Kenya
- The Village of Andavadoaka – Madagascar
- PACINDHA (Pole des actions d’integration des droits humains en Afrique) – Mali
- Collectif des Groupements d’Interests Economiques des Femmes pour la Protection de la Nature (COPRONAT) – Senegal
- Amani Nature Reserve – Tanzania
Asia & the Pacific
- Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha – Bangladesh
- Aharam (TCPC) Traditional Crops Producers’ Company – India
- Nam Ha Ecoguide Service – Lao People’s Democratic Republic
- Sepik Wetlands Management Initiative (SWMI) - Papua New Guinea
- Pederasyon sa Nagkahiusang mga Mag-uuma nga Nanalipud ug Nagpasig-uli sa Kinaiyahan Inc. (PENAGMANNAK) – Philippines
- Center for Empowerment and Resource Development – Philippines
- Crab Bay Community Resource Management Initiative – Vanuatu
- Phu My Leporina Wetland Conservation Project – Vietnam
Latin America & the Caribbean
- FrutaSã, Industria e Comércio Exportação Ltda. – Brazil
- CoopeTárcoles R.L. – Cooperativa de Pescadores Artesanales de Tárcoles – Costa Rica
- Federación Plurinacional de Turismo Comunitario del Ecuador (FEPTCE) – Ecuador
- Asociación de Mujeres de Isabela “Pescado Azul” – Ecuador
- Alimentos Nutri-Naturales - Guatemala
- Asociación para la Conservación de la Reserva Indígena BIOITZA – Guatemala
- Community Tours Sian Ka’an (CTSK) - Mexico
- Sociedad Cooperativa de Producción Pesquera “Pescadores de Vigía Chico y Cozumel” – Mexico
- Asociación para la Investigación y el Desarrollo Integral (AIDER) – Peru
About the Equator Initiative
Launched on 30 January 2002, the Equator Initiative is a partnership that brings together the United Nations, civil society, business, governments and communities to help build the capacity and raise the profile of grassroots efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The world's greatest concentrations of biological wealth are found in equatorial region, in countries that also have some of the highest levels of poverty. The Equator Initiative champions and supports community efforts to link economic development and income generation with the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Partners: The Government of Canada, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Conservation International, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Fordham University, International Development Research Centre, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), The Nature Conservancy, RARE, Television Trust for the Environment (TVE), United Nations Foundation.
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For more information, please visit www.EquatorInitiative.org.
Questions regarding the Equator Prize can be directed to equatorinitiative@undp.org.
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