MUSCAT, NOV 19 - India’s Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) has been awarded 2019 Sultan Qaboos Prize for the Conservation of the Environment by the Unesco. According to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs, Ashoka Trust Research was selected by a jury for its efforts to safeguard the environment at the community level and for its activities related to sustainable development and livelihood generation programmes. “The institution will be awarded the Unesco certificate, medal and financial reward at the World Science Forum, which begins in Budapest, Hungary, tomorrow,” it said.
The purpose of the Unesco-Sultan Qaboos Prize for Conservation of the Environment is to afford recognition to outstanding contributions by individuals, groups of individuals, institutes or organisations in the management or preservation of the environment, consistent with the policies, aims and objectives of Unesco, and in relation to the organisation’s programmes in this field.
These include environmental and natural resources research, education and training, creation of awareness through the preparation of environmental information materials and activities aimed at establishing and managing protected areas such as biosphere reserves and natural World Heritage Sites.
The prize is awarded every two years. As of 2019, the financial reward is $100,000. ATREE has won the award for its outstanding efforts to safeguard the environment at the social level, the diversity of its activities related to sustainable development and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods through the completion of a wide range of environmental works including ecosystems in the Himalayas, Western Ghats forests registered within the biosphere reserves and Unesco World Heritage Sites, Grasslands in Kochi, wetlands in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, urban landscapes in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, as well as several activities conducted by ATREE in the fields of ecology and environment for awareness and training in environmental conservation.
It is worth mentioning that His Majesty Sultan Qaboos announced during his visit to the Unesco headquarters in 1989 the launch of the “Unesco-Sultan Qaboos Prize for the Conservation of the Environment” which aims to highlight the outstanding contributions of individuals or groups, institutions or governmental and non-governmental organisations in the management and preservation of the environment, in environmental training and education, in the establishment and management of biosphere reserves, natural World Heritage Sites and global geological parks.
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