Projects and organizations working locally in developing countries to eliminate poverty through conservation are still making significant contribution for the overall achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); they can now apply for the Equator Prize 2010. The award has been established “to recognize and celebrate outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation of biodiversity.” Community-based organizations, community-based enterprises, indigenous groups, NGOs and “initiatives associated with a community-conserved area or other biological reserve” can make nominations for Prize. An important eligibility criterion is that their initiatives or projects should be located “within the equatorial belt (23.5 latitude North and South of the Equator) and in a developing country. This does cover a lot of developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America (list given in the official website of the Prize). Projects and initiatives proposed for the nomination should also demonstrate the impact of their interventions, the partnership adopted for building linkages with various local stakeholders, sustainability of their efforts, leadership and community empowerment and gender equality and social inclusion. There are also special recognition categories under the Prize: “Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Knowledge,” for initiatives which improve the quality of the life of the local indigenous communities by promoting their unique cultural identity, biologically diverse natural resources and/or traditional knowledge; and “Ecosystem-based Adaptation to Climate Change” for projects that “sustainably manage, conserve, or restore ecosystems and/or diversify practices to provide services that enable people to adapt t the impacts of climate change.”
There will be 25 community organizations selected to receive the honor under the Equator Prize and each of them will be given US $5,000. Out of the 25 selected initiatives or organizations, five will receive special recognition with an additional amount of US $15,000.
Nomination forms can be downloaded from the website of the Prize and sent by email preferably. Submissions can be submitted in English, French, Portuguese or Spanish. The deadline to submit the nominations is 28 February 2010. For more information, visit this link.
