The Equator Initiatives are pleased to announce a Call for nominations to the Equator Prize 2022. This year’s Equator Prize will recognize innovative initiatives from Indigenous peoples and local communities that demonstrate exceptional achievements in nature-based solutions for local sustainable development.

The Equator Prize, organized by the Equator Initiative within the United Nations Development Programme, is awarded biennially to recognize outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

As sustainable community initiatives take root throughout the tropics, they are laying the foundation for a global movement of local successes that are collectively making a contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As local and indigenous groups across the tropics demonstrate and exemplify sustainable development, the Equator Prize shines a spotlight on their efforts by celebrating them on an international stage.

Funding Information

• The winners will join a prestigious network of 264 leading community-based organizations from 84 countries that have been awarded the Equator Prize since 2002.
• Each Equator Prize winner will receive USD 10,000 and will be supported to participate in a series of policy dialogues and special events in the latter part of 2022.

Equator Prize 2022 Theme

Thematic priorities include:

• Creating a planetary safety net: Protection, restoration, and/or sustainable management of ecosystems to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and/or support communities in adapting to the impacts of climate change. This includes actions to:
  • Protect and restore nature in order to safeguard water, food, carbon, livelihoods, and biodiversity
  • Safeguard Indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands, territories, and resources, including through the use of cutting-edge technology
• Redefining Our Relationship with Nature: Redefine our relationship with nature by putting nature at the heart of local development plans and policies, and by defending the rights of land and water defenders. This includes actions to:
  • Integrate Indigenous peoples and local communities’ concepts, traditional knowledge, vision, and value of nature into local and/or national development plans and policies
  • Defend land and water defenders, advocate for land and water rights, and promote social and environmental justice
• Creating a new green economy for people and planet. Protection, restoration and/or sustainable management of terrestrial or marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and/or wildlife that enables sustainable livelihoods, green enterprises, and jobs, including the promotion of Indigenous economies. This includes actions to:
  • Accelerate regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, and sustainable fisheries
  • Ensure Indigenous peoples and local communities and their micro-, small-, and medium- green enterprises (MSMEs) at the heart of fair and inclusive sustainable supply chains
  • Develop sustainable commodity production and promote deforestation-free commodities
  • Support and strengthen Indigenous economies

Special consideration will be given to nominees working on ecosystem integrity and intactness, intergenerational equity, and gender equality.

Eligible Initiatives

• Community-based associations or organizations
• Community-based enterprises and cooperatives
• Women’s associations or organizations
• Indigenous or ethnic minority groups or associations
• Youth groups or associations
• Non-governmental organizations.

Eligibility Information

To be eligible for the Equator Prize, the following requirements apply:

• The initiative must have been in existence for at least three years, and/or the actions taken must have been in place for at least three years.
• The nominee must be either a local community-based initiative, operating in a rural area, based in a country receiving support from the United Nations Development Programme; or an initiative led by Indigenous peoples in any country, operating in a rural area.
• The actions taken by the nominee must be nature-based, and must deliver benefits related to two or more Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Eligible Countries

Local community based-groups must be located in one of the countries listed below.

• Eastern Europe and Central Asia
• Middle East and North Africa
• Latin America and the Caribbean
• Asia and the Pacific
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Global North (nominations from indigenous peoples and communities only).

Deadline: 5-Apr-22

Click here to start nomination  

Also Read: Other Opportunities to Apply

Also Apply for the Strategic-Technical Support Program – Capacity Building for NGOs and CBOs