On 19 July three inspiring individuals were announced by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as winners of the 2023 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, in recognition of their leadership restoring and protecting vital ecosystems: Bandi “Apai Janggut”, customary community leader (Indonesia), Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet, campaigner and agronomist (Cameroon) and Lélia Wanick Salgado, environmentalist, designer and scenographer (Brazil). The three individuals will share the €1 million Prize, equivalent to Rs 91,238,000.00 equally.
The Prize for Humanity is a manifestation of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s commitment to putting sustainability at the heart of everything it does and is given to individuals and organisations who are leading society’s efforts to tackle the biggest challenges facing humanity today – climate change and nature loss.
Indian environmentalist Sunita Narain on the Jury who selected these three winners said: “Climate change is an existential threat. We know this. We need to find solutions that provide us inspiration and direction on what can and must be done to regenerate the environment so that we build resilience of communities and also mitigate emissions. This is what the winners of this year’s prize represent. This recognition of the work of community leaders is our duty to hope. These transformational answers will provide communities, who are worst impacted by the impacts of climate change and indeed are victims of the emissions that we have contributed to the atmosphere, the courage to act.”
This is the fourth year in which the prize has been awarded. In 2020, its first year, the prize was awarded to Greta Thunberg; in 2021 it was awarded to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy; and in 2022, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were joint recipients.
Humanity and nature
The Foundation recognises that people, nature, and the climate are part of one joined-up ecosystem that supports life on earth. We cannot exist without nature. We depend on it for the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. At the same time, nature shapes and is shaped by the climate. Through our actions, we have disrupted the balance of nature and caused global temperatures to rise. Therefore, protecting and restoring nature – including the land and the sea – are critical for tackling climate change and for human survival. A flourishing natural world provides solutions for storing carbon and for reducing the impacts of global warming where these cannot be avoided. Humanity needs to find solutions for climate change which do not threaten the natural world.
The Jury, chaired by former Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, chose these three individuals out of 143 nominations from 55 countries. The winners were chosen for their leadership and tireless work over decades to restore vital ecosystems including forests, landscapes, and mangroves, and protect land with and for the benefit of local communities. They have all been committed to acting locally to restore and protect the land and biodiversity critical for the healthy functioning of our whole Earth and mitigating the impacts of climate change.
Merkel said: “Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The health of our planet and people depends on them, and healthy ecosystems will help us combat climate change. The Jury selected these three individuals in recognition of transformational work happening in the Global South, led by communities who are most impacted by climate change but have done the least to cause it. We believe the recipients will continue to inspire others and generate further positive climate action throughout the world.”
The Three Winners
- Bandi aka “Apai Janggut” is an elder and customary leader of the Indigenous Group of Dayak Iban Sungai Utik Long House, located in the rainforests of western Kalimantan, in Indonesian Borneo. Bandi has led his community in fighting for recognition of their traditional land rights for over 40 years. In 2020, the Indonesian government gave the Dayak Iban community legal recognition and ownership of 9,500 hectares of land.
- Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet is an advocate for gender equality and community rights to forests and natural resources from Cameroon. For over 30 years she has fought for the rights of women to secure land in tenure, ultimately to play a role in restoring vital ecosystems, end poverty and tackle climate change. In 2022 she was named ‘Champion of the Earth for Inspiration and Action’ by the UN Environment Programme and received the ‘Wangari Maathai Forest Champions’ Award by Collaborative Partnership on Forests.
- Lélia Wanick Salgado is a Brazilian environmentalist, designer and scenographer. In 1998 she co-founded the Instituto Terra, dedicated to the restoration of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. Instituto Terra has been responsible for planting more than 2.7 million trees and restoring more than 700 hectares of degraded land. In collaboration with smallholder farmers, an additional 2,000 have been reforested, recovering 1,900 water springs.
The Prize honours the work and intentions of its founder, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian
When he died in 1955 at the age of 86, Calouste Gulbenkian was the richest man in the world. Much of his fortune had been made from Middle East oil. Today we all know the damage that the oil industry has caused to the planet, but at the time, it was seen as an emerging technology offering huge benefits over coal. Calouste Gulbenkian was a business architect – a convener and coalition builder – establishing and maintaining relationships with partners around the world. He did not see himself as an ‘oil man’. Never tied to a single country, he travelled the world exploring his joint passions for art and nature. He regarded philanthropy as his duty and established the Foundation, which continues his work to, “benefit all of humanity”, and today under the Board’s direction is prioritising sustainability and equity in everything it does.
About the Author
(Authored by Sangeeta Waldron, Serendipity PR & Media Limited, UK)
