20 September 2012: The winners of the MIDORI Prize, organized by the AEON Environmental Foundation in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), have been announced. The prize is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at global, regional or local levels.

The winners of the 2012 prize are: Juan Carlos Castilla, Professor of Marine Ecology at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Rodrigo Gamez-Lobo, President of Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Costa Rica; and Vo Quy, Honorary President at the Center for Natural Resources Management and Environmental Studies (CRES), Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

Each recipient will be awarded a wooden plaque, a commemorative gift and a monetary prize of US$100,000 to support their work in safeguarding biodiversity at a ceremony held on 17 October 2012, in conjunction with the high-level segment of the 11th meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP 11), to take place in Hyderabad, India. A Winners’ Forum will then be held on 22 October 2012, at the UN University (UNU), in Tokyo, Japan. [CBD Press Release]