7 February 2012: The World Future Council (WFC), in partnership with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), will present the Future Policy Award 2012 to the most effective ocean and coast preservation policy, in order to raise global awareness about original and impressive ideas for environmental policy change.

With the support of the Okeanos Foundation, the WFC has organized this policy award to demonstrate the capability of global leaders to implement more competent environmental policy. The winning policy will showcase an example of what the global community is capable of in its policy initiatives.

According to press releases about this year’s Award, cohesive ocean and coast policy is essential to environmental sustainability because oceans provide food and livelihood to over half a billion people. Mitigating biodiversity loss and degradation thus is a critical worldwide challenge.

The award ceremony will take place October 2012, in Hyderabad, India, during the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 11). [Joint Press Release of GEF, WFC, CBD, FAO]