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.
C-CONDEM promotes participatory and community reforestation of mangrove forests, reclaiming areas deforested by the industrial aquaculture and promoting an alternative, sustainable and inclusive land use. At C-CONDEM, rural women from an Afro-Ecuadorian minority relentlessly combat mangrove deforestation through activism and global restoration campaigns for the ecological rights of coastal communities in Ecuador. Their activism led to the proclamation of International Day of Mangrove Ecosystems.