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WORLD’S BEST BIODIVERSITY LAWS SHORTLISTED FOR FUTURE POLICY AWARD 2010
Joint event, CBD-World Future Council, Official Programme
Winners will be announced on 25 October 2010, 6:30pm, Nagoya Congress Centre, Courtyard

Nagoya/Hamburg/Montreal, 21 October 2010 – For celebrating the world’s best biodiversity policies with the Future Policy Award 2010, ministers, decision-makers, media and donors will gather on 25 October at an official ceremony in Nagoya, Japan. The Future Policy Award, established by the World Future Council, honours laws with particularly positive effects on the living conditions of current and future generations. It is the first award to celebrate policies rather than people on an international level. This year’s award gala is hosted by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, as part of the official programme of the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention.

Six policies out of 16 nominations are shortlisted for this year’s Future Policy Award. “The nominated laws are the most exemplary existing legal frameworks for safeguarding and enriching Earth’s biological diversity,” said Jakob von Uexkull, Founder of the World Future Council. The short listed candidates are:

· Costa Rica: Biodiversity Law, 1998

· Japan: Basic Biodiversity Act, 2008

· Norway: Nature Diversity Act, 2009

· Australia: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act, 1975, and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999

· Namibia: Marine Resources Act, 2000

· Philippines: Wildlife Resources and Conservation Act, 2001

The award jury was composed of 10 experts on sustainability from all five continents. Among them were Jakob von Uexkull (Founder of the World Future Council and the Right Livelihood Award), Judge Christopher Gregory Weeramantry (former Vice-President of the International Court of Justice), Vandana Shiva (Winner of the Right Livelihood Award and Ecologist from India) and Prof. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (Chief, Environment & Sustainable Development Law, IDLO). The award is not endowed, rather it consists of a highly distinguished glass sculpture created by one of Germany’s top designers, Peter Schmidt. A documentary film on the winning policy has been specially made in order to raise public awareness and to promote international distribution of such an excellent policy.

Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity: “The Future Policy Award 2010 recognizes, encourages and rewards exemplary biodiversity laws and regulations, which are essential to the successful implementation of the post-2010 biodiversity strategy.”

Ms Alexandra Wandel, Executive Member of the Management Board of the World Future Council: “If we continue to disregard the mounting evidence of biodiversity loss and if governments continue to fall short of the UN Biodiversity targets, the diversity of life on Earth will be lost at a greatly accelerated rate. The Future Policy Award 2010 highlights the fact that sustainable policies already exist and that the negative trends of biodiversity destruction, exploitation and species at risk of extinction can be stopped by asserting political will.”

Date reminder

Date: Monday, 25 October 2010
Time: 6:30 – 8:30pm
Location: Courtyard, Nagoya Congress Centre, 1-1 Atsuta-nishimachi, Atsuta-ku, Nagoya

Contact: Ingrid Heindorf (COP10), + 81 80 3660 0236, ingrid.heindorf@worldfuturecouncil.org