To honor and promote the important role of the knowledge passed down through generations in addressing the pressing environmental issues of our time, Earthna Centre for a Sustainable Future, a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), has launched the Earthna Prize.
The prize strives to support projects and organizations that preserve, integrate, and adopt traditional knowledge and cultural heritage to tackle contemporary sustainability challenges.
Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation, said: “The Earthna Prize is a call to honor and learn from the deep ecological wisdom of Indigenous peoples. These invaluable traditions provide us with time-tested institutions and precepts that truly work.”
The Earthna Prize will recognize communities and organizations globally whose work aligns with one or more of the prize’s themes: water resource management, food security, sustainable urbanism, and land stewardship. With a prize pool of US $1 million, winners may use the award to support the development, continuation, and scaling of their work. Launched on International Earth Day – an event held annually on 22 April which aims to support environmental protection – the prize will provide winners with a global platform to highlight their projects, opening up opportunities for collaboration with an international network of sustainability stakeholders.
Dr. Gonzalo Castro de la Mata, Executive Director of Earthna, said: “The Earthna Prize is unlike many others. It goes beyond mere recognition – it’s about providing tangible support to initiatives that rescue ancestral wisdom and cultural heritage in the context of environmental sustainability. It gives us the opportunity to learn from the past and explore how traditional knowledge is still relevant in today’s context and challenges. The prize also reflects Earthna's continuous efforts to motivate communities to prioritize sustainability, fostering a more resilient and environmentally aware world.”
Submissions for the Earthna Prize are open until 30 June 2024. Applicants including non-governmental organizations, community groups, and businesses, can apply or be nominated for their efforts.
The Earthna Prize criteria prioritize projects which showcase the applicability of traditional wisdom and blend it with present day sustainability practices, with a focus on innovation, effectiveness, and scalability. Applications will face rigorous evaluation by a diverse panel of renowned sustainability, traditional knowledge and cultural heritage experts. A high-level jury will select four winners to be announced at the Earthna Summit in 2025.
More information about the prize can be found at www.earthna.qa.
Source and cover image credit: Press release
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