Earthna launches $1m global sustainability prize on Earth Day
Earthna Centre for a Sustainable Future, a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), launched a new global sustainability prize on Monday.
The prize was constituted to find and reward effective approaches to environmental management that blend traditional knowledge with present-day solutions.
On #EarthDay we @earthnaqa @QF are proud to launch the #EarthnaPrize to honor initiatives that leverage traditional knowledge to solve present #sustainability challenges. Apply/nominate by 30.06.24 on https://t.co/lzhmGuFGCH pic.twitter.com/wulioGUAgL
— Earthna (@earthnaqa) April 22, 2024
The Earthna Prize, launched on Earth Day, aims to diversify, educate, and activate the environmental movement worldwide.
According to officials, the biennial prize will reward $1m to four deserving organisations ($250,000 each) whose work aligns with the prize’s themes — water resource management, food security, sustainable urbanism, and land stewardship.
“The Earthna Prize is a call to honour and learn from the deep ecological wisdom of Indigenous peoples. These invaluable traditions provide us with time-tested institutions and precepts that truly work,” said QF Vice Chairperson and CEO HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani.
“Applicants for the Earthna Prize can be non-governmental organizations, community groups, and businesses. They can self-apply or be nominated for their efforts, and applications for the inaugural Earthna Prize are open until June 30,” Earthna Centre’s Executive Director Dr Gonzalo Castro de la Mata was quoted as saying by The Peninsula.
A high-level jury, who will select the four winners, will announce them during the 2025 Earthna Summit next April.
“This is a very different prize because we’re focusing on traditional knowledge and cultural heritage. Usually, environmental prizes try to recognise initiatives to solve today’s environmental problems, but here, we’re really looking at the knowledge that has been accumulated in communities around the world and the relevance of that knowledge to solutions to today’s problems,” Dr Mata told The Peninsula.
“For example, there’re many community practices for good water management that are still being practiced around the world. This has been going on for hundreds of years, many generations, and we don’t want that knowledge to be lost. We want to recognise it and study the extent to which these solutions are still relevant today,” he said.
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