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.