Bunaken park management wins UN prize

Bunaken park management wins UN prize

Associated Press, United Nations

Seven tropical communities from around the world have been awarded prizes for their work to reduce poverty while conserving biological wealth, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced on Thursday.

The UN Equator Prizes for 2004 went to Indonesia's Bunaken National Park board and Bunaken Concerned Citizens' Forum, Proyecto Nasa in Colombia, Mexico's Comunidad Indigena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, GREEN Foundation in India, Rufiji Environment Management Project in Tanzania, Namibia's Torra Conservancy and Brazil's Sociedade Civil Mamiraua.

Each received an award worth US$30,000 at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday, the closing day of a conference on the Convention on Biological Diversity.

UNDP administrator Mark Malloch Brown said in a statement that the honorees and other communities and grassroots groups like them "are at the forefront of efforts to forge a more sustainable future for our planet."

Their work demonstrates the success of partnerships among individuals, communities, governments and civic organizations at improving both local livelihoods and the environment, he said.

In Indonesia, the Bunaken National Park Management Advisory Board and Bunaken Concerned Citizens'Forum co-manage a protected marine area in North Sulawesi, balancing conservation with the needs of 30,000 people who live in the park.

The Brazilian nongovernmental organization Sociedade Civil Mamiraua was honored for pioneering the creation of sustainable development reserves within the Central Amazon Conservation Complex, a biodiverse UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Tanzanian group Rufiji Environment Management Project promotes long-term conservation in villages near the Selous Game Reserve, another World Heritage Site, by working with government authorities and local communities.

Namibia's Torra Conservancy is a community-based program that covers 352,000 hectares (869,000 acres) in the country's northwest and that has worked with private industry to found a luxury tented lodge to promote ecotourism, among other activities.

India's Genetic Resource, Energy, Ecology and Nutrition (or GREEN) Foundation works with traditional agricultural knowledge and with women's farming groups to create seed and gene banks and other projects in the state of Karnataka.

The Mexican indigenous community of San Juan Parangaricutiro, which collectively owns 11,000 hectares of forest in the state of Michoacan, maintains a wide range of environmentally friendly forestry, timber and tourism enterprises.

Indigenous people in Colombia's Proyecto Nasa manage 49,000 hectares partially inside the Nevada del Huila Biosphere Reserve and manage to practice conservation despite the violence in their area from the country's four-decade-long civil war.

The Equator Initiative, launched in 2002, focuses on the tropical regions and promotes worldwide efforts to reduce poverty and conserve biodiversity. The prizes are awarded biannually by the UNDP and nine partner organizations.