ATREE wins Unesco’s $100,000 eco award

Bengaluru: City-based

Ashoka Trust

for Research in Ecology and the Environment (

ATREE

), one of the top environmental think-tanks, has been selected for this year’s Unesco

Sultan Qaboos Prize

for Environmental

Conservation

in recognition of its activities pertaining to environment conservation and sustainable development.

The prize, which comprises US $100,000 along with a citation and medal, will be presented at an award ceremony in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday.

Founded by biologist Kamaljit S Bawa two decades ago, ATREE has been working towards providing applied and interdisciplinary education in conservation and sustainability studies to youngsters besides creating strong institutional framework to achieve environmental and social goals through research.

According to a release from Unesco, the prize recognizes ATREE for its contribution to participatory approach to improving environmental conservation in India’s Sikkim and Darjeeling regions involving conservation planning and the creation and promotion of sustainable livelihoods. The prize also recognizes significant contributions towards the discovery of new species in the Western Ghats, and exceptional outreach to raise awareness of India’s biodiversity and train environmental leaders.

ATREE also contributes to the conservation of diverse environments throughout India, including the Eastern Himalayas, the Unesco Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and the Western Ghats World Heritage Site, Vembanad Lake, Kaziranga and Manas National Parks, the grasslands of Kutch, the wetlands of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and urban landscapes of Karnataka, the release said.

ATREE director Dr Nitin Pandit said, “This award is a recognition of the far sighted research done by ATREE's researchers and students over the years to address the elusive balance between the quality of India's development and her amazing ecosystems.”

Allocated every other year, the Unesco Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Conservation was established through a donation by Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said of Oman.