The Equator Initiative is a United Nations-led partnership that brings together governments, civil society, grassroots organizations, and businesses to foster resilient communities by recognizing and advancing local nature-based solutions for sustainable development. The Equator Prize 2019 will be awarded to outstanding local community and indigenous peoples’ initiatives that advance innovative nature-based development solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The winners will join a prestigious network of 223 leading community-based organizations from 78 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 during the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week in New York, in September 2019. The Equator Prize 2019 Award Ceremony will coincide with the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit and the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

Equator Prize 2019 Themes

This year’s Equator Prize will recognize innovative initiatives from local communities and indigenous peoples that demonstrate exceptional achievements in the areas of nature-based actions that address climate change mitigation and/or adaptation, and advance local sustainable development. Winning initiatives will be honored for their successes in:

• protect, restore and/or sustainably manage terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and thereby help mitigate and adapt to climate change by keeping ecosystems intact, and/or
• promote local models for climate-smart food and agricultural production systems, and/or
• advance nature-based alternatives to a carbon economy

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Equator Prize 2019:

• 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 (for a list of eligible countries, please click here); 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)

Important Note:

• Nominators are encouraged to quantify results and include data that demonstrates positive impacts in their submissions.
• Nominations may be submitted either directly by the initiative or community, by a partner organization, or by any third party that is sufficiently familiar with the activities and achievements of the initiative or community.
• Nominators must indicate whether they agree to have the solution highlighted in the Equator Initiative web portal on local nature-based solutions for sustainable development.
• Nominated initiatives will undergo a verification process that may require nominees and/or nominators to provide additional information and/or materials.
• Nominations may be submitted in: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish.
• Nominations must be submitted by February 26, 2019.