New York - This year’s Equator Prize Award Ceremony – themed “Nature for Life” – will honour ten outstanding Indigenous and local groups from across the world. Each winner showcases innovative, nature-based solutions for tackling biodiversity, climate change, and poverty challenges. The event highlights concrete responses and practical solutions to the environmental crisis from Indigenous peoples and local communities all over the world.

During the pandemic, calls for green recovery have been loud and clear, and the world is hungry for nature-based solutions. The ten winners of the Equator Prize 2020 provide blueprints for addressing the socioeconomic crisis caused by COVID-19 at the local level with green approaches.

"Indigenous peoples and local communities are vulnerable and have been hit heavily by the pandemic. At the same time, their resilience and ingenuity in the stewardship over their traditional territories show the pathway to sustainable development at the local level", said Jamison Ervin, Manager, UNDP’s Global Program on Nature for Development, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

"We look forward to celebrating the achievements of the winners - each of them demonstrating how the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of natural ecosystems can provide clean water, protect our climate, and contribute to prosperity."

The high-profile event, held virtually this year, will feature award presentations, videos on winning initiatives, community statements and government commitments, as well as musical and cultural performances. The Ceremony will be held on September 29^th, in conjunction with the UN Biodiversity Summit on September 30^th and the UN General Assembly (both also virtual).

Countries featured in the Ceremony include: Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Myanmar and Thailand. For a full list of winning communities, please visit https://www.equatorinitiative.org/2020/06/02/meet-the-winners-of-the-equator-prize-2020/

More specific details on roster of presenters, time and links to follow.

Interviews with Equator Prize winners and select speakers are available on request. For media requests please contact: Sangita Khadka, sangita.khadka@undp.org and Lesley Wright, lesley.wright@undp.org.

More information on the Equator Prize is available here.

An in-depth analysis of the significance of this year’s winners is available here.

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