Four groups of personnel won the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Kipepeo Awards in Innovation, Collaborative Teams and Environmental Impact. For the first time, the winners will receive a monetary prize of $ 8,000 to be spent on team-building or capacity-building activities.
The 2023 edition received 57 submissions analyzed by jury members from UNEP and the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA). The ceremony was hosted on the 19th of October during the UNEP global town hall on Microsoft Teams.
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, expressed appreciation to all participants during her opening remarks. “I celebrate every work in UNEP, but the Kipepeo celebrates the best,” she said.
The Kipepeo Awards were launched in 2021 in response to the Secretary-General's call to recognize individuals and teams for their outstanding performance.
About the winners
1. Innovation category: Restoration Factory is a capacity building program developed to help ecological entrepreneurs in Kenya devise bankable and attractive business models that restore landscapes and preserve ecosystems.
2. Collaborative Teams category: Adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The team made remarkable strides towards the adoption of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
3. Environmental Impact category: City Adapt LAC is a regional project that seeks to include Ecosystems-based Adaptation in urban planning to tackle climate change impacts in Latin America and Caribbean cities. It has benefited over 125,500 people.
Shade for Life’s teams work towards restoring rangeland ecosystems by planting clusters of up to 150 large trees, including oak, fig, and wild almond trees, to provide shade for the shepherds and their herds, supporting water infiltration and sustaining long-term grazing.
Special Mention
Global Framework for Chemicals: For a planet free of harm from chemicals and waste
This framework provides a vision for a planet free of harm from chemicals and waste, for a safe, healthy and sustainable future. It is based around 28 targets that aim to improve the sound management of chemicals and waste. Governments have committed to creating, by 2030, the regulatory environment to reduce chemical pollution and implement policies to promote safer alternatives. Industry has committed to managing chemicals in a way that reduces chemical pollution and adverse impacts by 2030. The framework calls for, by 2035, a phase out of highly hazardous pesticides in agriculture where the risks have not been managed and safer alternatives are available. There is a target on strengthening links between the new instrument and the climate, biodiversity, human rights and health agendas.
For more information, please contact unep-whatsup@un.org.
