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Equator Prize 2010: Call for Nominations Opens
The Call for Nominations for the Equator Prize 2010 officially opened on 11 January 2010. The Equator Prize is awarded biennially by the UNDP Equator Initiative for outstanding local, indigenous and community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Now in its fifth award cycle, the Equator Prize has special significance this year: the International Year of Biodiversity, 2010.
The Equator Prize 2010 will be awarded to twenty-five local and indigenous communities from across the tropics. “Special recognition” will be awarded to five communities; one from each region of prize eligibility (Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean), one for indigenous peoples and applied traditional knowledge, and one for ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change. Equator Prize winners receive international recognition for their work, an opportunity to shape international policy and practice in the field, and a monetary award.
Equator Prize winners are selected on the principal criteria of impact, partnerships, sustainability, innovation and transferability, leadership and community empowerment, as well as gender equality and social inclusion. Past Equator Prize winners have spanned fields of work ranging from agro-forestry to seed banks, agriculture to enterprise, indigenous and community-conserved areas to locally-managed marine areas, adaptation to climate change to organic farming, and more. Equator Prize winners share the common feature of reconciling viable livelihoods with the maintenance of biological diversity and ecological balance.
Nominations for the Equator Prize 2010 must be received by 28 February 2010. Further information on the Equator Prize, selection criteria and nomination instructions is available at
www.equatorinitiative.org.
The Equator Initiative
The Equator Initiative is a partnership that brings together the United Nations, governments, civil society, businesses, and grassroots organizations to build the capacity and raise the profile of local efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Started in 2002, the Equator Initiative evolved in response to the fact that the world’s greatest concentrations of biodiversity are found in countries also beset by the world’s most acute poverty, and the emerging trend of local leadership in advancing innovative projects in biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction.
As sustainable community initiatives take root throughout the tropics, they are laying the foundation for a global movement of local successes that are collectively making a significant contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change.
For more information on the Equator Prize 2010 or the Equator Initiative, please contact Joseph Corcoran at
joseph.corcoran@undp.org.
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