Finding appropriate answers and setting trends
The outstanding role played by winners of the Alternative Nobel Prize "Right Livelihood Award" in the struggle to maintain biological diversity was stressed by Ursula Heinen-Esser, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry. “To halt the loss of biological diversity, we need not only clear intent on the part of politicians, but also the commitment and dedication of many courageous individuals. The winners of the ‘Right Livelihood Award’ have found appropriate answers and set trends in their own countries,” Ms. Heinen-Esser said in Bonn at an event held by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation to mark the 30th anniversary of the Alternative Nobel Prize "Right Livelihood Award".
Contributions to the discussion on how to "Halt the loss of biodiversity" were made by Alternative Nobel Prize winners Sunderlal Bahuguna (India), Mohammaed Idris (Malaysia), Birsel Lemke (Turkey), Rene Ngongo (Congo), Vandana Shiva (India/Canada), Judit Vasarhelyi (Hungary) and Michael Succow (Germany). All the prize winners received their awards because they had found exemplary practical answers to the most pressing challenges facing us today. For example, Mohamed Idris champions forest conservation and the rights of indigenous peoples in the Malaysian part of Borneo, and Sunderlal Bahuguna from the Indian Chipko movement is using peaceful resistance methods to combat the commercial destruction of forests in the Indian Himalayas.
"Their efforts to bring about a reversal of the trend in biodiversity conservation are at the same time a positive message to the participants in the next UN Nature Conservation Conference," said Ursula Heinen Esser. The conference of the parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is to be held next month in Nagoya, Japan, and will decide the course that international policy on biodiversity is to take in the next 10 years.