Singapore to Host Top
United Nations Environment Prize
Singapore/Nairobi, 23 March 2006
- Seven ‘green’ leaders are to be celebrated as
the 2006 Champions of the Earth by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP).
The awards, presented for the second time, recognize
prominent and inspirational environmental leaders
from each region of the world. Through leadership,
vision and creativity, each Champion has made an
impact at the policy level.
As announced today, the 2006 Champions of the Earth
are:
• Tewolde Gebre Egziabher of Ethiopia, a champion
against the patenting of life forms and for community
rights in Africa.
• Tommy Koh of Singapore for his contributions to
the cause of the environment by chairing the Earth
Summit and the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea.
• Mikhail Gorbachev of the Russian Federation, a
champion in the field of international environmental
politics and for conflict prevention on waterways
globally.
• Rosa Elena Simeon Negrin of Cuba, a champion of
small island developing states and a subscriber
and regional force behind the philosophy of ‘thinking
globally and acting locally”.
• The Women’s Environment and Development Organization
(WEDO), a champion for over 15 years in the field
of women’s economic, social and gender rights and
a beacon for the empowerment of women across the
environment and development debate.
• Mohamed El-Ashry of Egypt, a champion for the
wise use of natural resources and a former head
of the multi-billion Global Environment Facility,
which helps developing countries onto the sustainable
development path.
• Massoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s first female vice-president
and a champion of cleaner production in the petrochemical
industry.
The winners will be honoured on 21 April at a gala
event hosted by UNEP, the Singapore Ministry of
the Environment and Water Resources and the Singapore
Tourism Board, with the support of various sponsors
and partners including the Asia Pacific Resources
International Holdings (APRIL), the Lien Foundation
and Nanyang Technological University.
Other supporters of the ceremony include: CNN Fortune,
Time, Eco 4 The World Foundation, Singapore Environment
Council, Channel News Asia and Today.
The event and the inspiring stories of the Champions
will be broadcast across the Asia Pacific region
by CNN and featured in such leading publications
as Time and Fortune magazines.
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP’s Executive Director, thanked
the sponsors and the people of Singapore for supporting
and hosting the prestigious event.
“I believe that this event comes at an exciting
time, where the last 12 months will go down as a
period in history when we rediscovered the crucial
importance of the environment for our economic,
social and spiritual lives,” he said.
“A renaissance in environmental politics and policy
does not come in a vacuum. It emerges as a result
of the collective efforts of governments, organizations
and private business. It needs the long-term commitment
and vision of men and women. It needs people who
have been and continue to be Champions of the Earth,”
added Mr Toepfer.
AFRICA
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher – Ethiopia
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher has put much of his
energy into negotiations at various biodiversity-related
fora – in particular the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO). He has built a strong group of well-prepared
African negotiators who initiated and took the lead
in the Group of 77 and China Group. As a result,
Africa has come out with united, strong and progressive
positions, such as no patents on living materials
and the recognition of community rights, which have
strengthened the G77 and China’s negotiating positions.
He was instrumental in securing recommendations
from the African Union (AU) encouraging African
countries to develop and implement community rights,
a common position on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS), and a clear stance against
patents on life. He also guided the drafting of
the AU model legislation for community rights, which
is being used as the common model by all African
countries.
Contact: esid@ethionet.et
or esid@telecom.net.et
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Tommy Koh – Singapore
Tommy Koh has had a life-long love of nature. It
began with his long years in the Boy Scout Movement.
In Singapore, he is the Patron of The Nature Society
(Singapore), Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Centre
on Environmental Law and Chairman of the Advisory
Committee of the Master's degree on environment
management at the National University of Singapore.
At the international level, he has made significant
contributions to the protection of the environment
and sustainable development. He was elected to chair
the preparatory committee for the 1992 UN Conference
on Environment and Development. He chaired the main
committee at the Earth Summit. Subsequently, the
UN Secretary-General appointed him to the High-Level
Advisory Board on Sustainable Development.
He also spent a decade helping to negotiate the
landmark 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
He was elected President of that Conference in its
critical final year. The Convention represents an
important chapter in the protection of the marine
environment.
For his contributions to the Environment, he was
made a Commander of the Order of the Golden Ark
by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and received
the Elizabeth Haub Prize for Environmental Law from
the Free University of Brussels and the World Conservation
Union (IUCN).
Contact: tommy_koh@mfa.gov.sg
EUROPE
H. E. Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev – Russia
Mikhail Gorbachev has been actively promoting environmental
awareness and responsibility, especially among political
leaders, for well over a decade – long before sustainable
development became the central international concern
it is today. As President of the former USSR, he
made policy changes aimed at halting the worst contamination
and destruction in the country, changes such as
closing thousands of heavily polluting factories
and preventing a major scheme to divert the rivers
of Siberia.
He learned first-hand the critical environmental,
strategic and social importance of water resources
as State Secretary for Agriculture when he was faced
with the terrible calamity of the Aral Sea. This
experience led to ‘Water for Life and Peace’ becoming
a major focus of Green Cross International, the
organization he founded in 1993. Since then, he
has been committed to improving water management
and access, and, in particular, the prevention of
conflicts over shared water –at village and international
level.
He worked tirelessly to encourage shared water to
become a source of cooperation among Israelis, Palestinians
and Jordanians, and engaged in mediation efforts
at the highest level. He has personally supported
Green Cross water conflict prevention initiatives
in Africa, South America, Central Europe, and in
his own native river basin, the Volga. His involvement
has been critical to breaking deadlocks and encouraging
parties to negotiate. Most recently, in 2003, he
launched a Local and Regional Authorities Water
Initiative aimed at strengthening decentralized
cooperation and North-South solidarity to provide
drinking water for the world’s most desperate people
while respecting local cultures and ecosystems.
Contact: gcinternational@gci.ch
LATIN AMERICA AND THE
CARIBBEAN
Dr. Rosa Elena Simeon Negrin – Cuba
Dr. Rosa Elena Simeon Negrin’s passion for the environment
is well documented and is a shining example for
the world to follow.
Her steadfast, committed and selfless work has been
vital for fostering the notion of sustainability
and for raising the environmental awareness of Cubans.
She took on a position of leadership, which continued
for some 20 years, at a time when the issue of environment
was beginning to feature prominently in the political
agenda of governments and international organizations.
She was able to translate the best environmental
practices into everyday life in Cuba.
In 1989, she participated, for the first time, in
the Forum of Ministers of the Environment of Latin
America and the Caribbean, whose sixth meeting took
place in Brasilia that year. Since that time, until
her death in 2004, Dr. Negrin played a prominent
widely acclaimed role in regional forums.
In addition to directing Cuba’s preparations for
the Rio Summit, she also presided over her country’s
delegation. She always had a clear vision of the
concept of “thinking globally and acting locally”
and she brought this vision to international forums.
In 1994, she participated in the development of
the Alliance of Small Island States Summit (AOSIS).
By that time she was already an accomplished international
mediator and was able to bring the experience that
she had gained from her participation in the Rio
Summit to bear on that forum.
Contact: relena@ceniai.inf.cu
NORTH AMERICA
Women's Environment and Development Organization
(WEDO) – USA
WEDO, established in 11000 by former U.S. Congresswoman
Bella Abzug and feminist activist and journalist
Mim Kelber, advocates for women’s empowerment and
gender equality in global policy-making forums,
promoting women as decision makers for the achievement
of economic, social and gender justice, a healthy,
peaceful planet, and human rights for all.
WEDO is a leader in organizing women for international
conferences and actions. In the lead up to the 1992
UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED),
WEDO brought together more than 1,500 diverse women
from more than 80 countries for the World Women’s
Congress for a Healthy Planet, where they produced
Women’s Action Agenda 21, a comprehensive platform
they used at UNCED to put women’s rights and gender
equality on the official sustainable development
agenda for the first time. WEDO pioneered a Women’s
Caucus at the United Nations through which advocates
from around the world worked together to gain crucial
commitments at UNCED and in other key international
development conferences of the 11000s.
Today WEDO works to ensure that these government
commitments are put into action. Even as major global
forces—such as privatization of basic services and
natural resources, deregulation, increased military
spending, religious extremism—are undermining the
gains of the past decades, WEDO continues to galvanize
the energy and spirit of women worldwide for a healthy
and peaceful planet.
Contact: june@wedo.org
or maria@wedo.org
WEST ASIA
Mohamed El-Ashry – Egypt
Mohamed El-Ashry’s contributions to protecting the
environment and the wise management of natural resources
span more than 35 years—pre-dating the first Earth
Day in 1970. His contributions have been made throughout
a career that spans academia, public sector institutions,
non-governmental organizations, think tanks and
international institutions.
Perhaps Mr. El-Ashry’s most significant
achievement is his 12-year role in the re-structuring,
management, and operation of the Global Environment
Facility (GEF), for which he served as its first
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. Under his
leadership, the GEF grew from a modest pilot programme
with less than 30 members and an $800 million purse
to the largest single source of funding for the
global environment with 174 member countries. During
his tenure, the GEF allocated US $4.5 billion in
grants and leveraged US $12 billion in additional
financing for the global environment, for a portfolio
of more than 1,200 projects in 140 developing countries.
In his three terms of service,
he has mobilized from donor countries a total of
$7 billion in three replenishments. The first two
consisted of $2 billion each. In 2002, for the third
replenishment, donors cast an extraordinary vote
of confidence in the GEF by replenishing it with
$3 billion.
Contact: mohamed@el-ashry.com
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Massoumeh Ebtekar – Iran (Special Prize)
Massoumeh Ebtekar’s philosophy that sustainable
development depends on maintaining the balance between
economic growth and environmental concerns is one
that the United Nations shares. As Iran's first
woman vice-president, she has led efforts to tackle
air-pollution problems in Tehran and promote the
protection of marine life in the Persian Gulf.
Ms. Ebtekar has influenced the integration of environmental
considerations into the industry and energy sectors
in Iran and, thanks to her efforts, clean production
technologies and environmental accounting and management
systems have been integrated into the country’s
petrochemical industry. Under her guidance, the
Department of Environment is working with the government
and the private sector to create necessary incentives
and economic mechanisms for enhancing environmental
awareness and management capacity.
Contact: info@peace-environment.org
Note to Editors
Background on the Champions of the Earth prize and
all the laureates, including biographies and photographs,
is available from http://www.unep.org/champions/
or from UNEP DCPI at championsoftheearth@unep.org.
The Champions of the Earth award, a new international
environment award established in 2004, will be presented
by UNEP each year to outstanding environmental achievers
and leaders.
No monetary reward is attached to the prize. Each
laureate receives a trophy made of recycled metal
especially designed by the Kenyan sculptor Kioko.
The trophy represents the fundamental elements for
life on Earth – sun, air, land and water.
UNEP invites nominations from individuals who have
made a significant and recognized contribution globally,
regionally and beyond, to the protection and sustainable
management of the Earth’s environment and natural
resources. Candidates are judged by a senior UNEP
panel with input from UNEP’s regional offices.
