Ten Indigenous peoples and local communities receive 13th Equator Prize

Equator Prize winners will receive US$10,000, and the opportunity to take part in a series of special virtual events associated with the UN General Assembly, the UNDP Nature for Life Hub, COP 27 in Egypt, and COP 15 in Montreal.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and partners announce the winners of the 13th Equator Prize, recognizing ten Indigenous peoples and local communities from nine countries. The winners, selected from a pool of over 500 nominations from 109 countries hail from Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique and Argentina. The announcement also marks the Equator Initiative's 20th anniversary, recognizing 264 winners to date.

This year's winners highlight the theme of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples: "The Role of Indigenous Women in the Preservation and Transmission of Traditional Knowledge." Four of this year's Equator Prize winners are women-led initiatives, while all ten promote gender equality in their community, and all showcase the importance of placing traditional knowledge and nature-based solutions at the heart of local development. The winning organizations demonstrate the ways that innovative, nature-based solutions can enable communities to achieve, even in a time of economic, environmental, political, and public health shocks.

"For 20 years, Equator Prize winners have shown that local communities are already putting into place the economic and development transformations we need, to achieve a nature-positive future for all. Now more than ever, it is time to emulate their leadership and support their efforts. We are grateful to the ten Equator Prize winners for the inspiration they provide, and we are grateful to the Government of Norway for their generous support to the Equator Initiative," - stated Francine Pickup, Deputy Director of UNDP's Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

Among this year's winners are also an Indigenous women-led group of grassroots organizers protecting jaguars through political and cultural advocacy; a coalition of Indigenous tribes making the field of conservation research more inclusive to local communities; a local environmental justice organization at the forefront of international efforts to conserve and protect vital biodiversity hotspots – mangroves; and a community-managed forestry project that protects local livelihoods while safeguarding the endangered Bonobo.

Equator Prize winners will receive US$10,000, and the opportunity to take part in a series of special virtual events associated with the UN General Assembly, the UNDP Nature for Life Hub, COP 27 in Egypt, and COP 15 in Montreal. They will join a network of 264 communities from over 80 countries that have received the Equator Prize since its inception 20 years ago.

The celebration of the Equator Prize winners will take place in late November during UNDP's Nature for Life Hub, just before the long-delayed global biodiversity conference.

For more information, please visit the Equator Initiative website and join the conversation by using #EquatorPrize on Twitter or Facebook.