8 September 2014: The Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has announced the winners of the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity 2014. Established in 2012, the MIDORI Prize is an international prize honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

The winners of the 2014 Prize are: Kamal Bawa, President, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), India, and Distinguished Professor, University of Massachusetts, Boston, US; Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, Chair, Ghana National Biodiversity Committee, Ghana; and Bibiana Vilá, Principal Researcher, National Research Council (CONICET), Argentina.

Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary, CBD, commented that the MIDORI Prize is a unique and powerful initiative to help raise awareness and encourage action for the mainstreaming of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

The prize was co-organized by the AEON Environmental Foundation and the CBD Secretariat. It seeks to inspire positive action for biodiversity as well as public awareness on biodiversity and the objectives of the UN Decade on Biodiversity. The MIDORI Prize is awarded every two years to three individuals at an award ceremony held on the sidelines of the meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD. Each winner receives a wooden plaque and a monetary prize of US$100,000. [CBD Press Release] [Midori Prize website]