News - Thursday 20th April 2006
Dr Tewolde to be hailed as a ‘Champion of the Earth’
Dr Tewolde Gebre Egziabher of Ethiopia is among the seven ‘green’ leaders being celebrated as the 2006 Champions of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) tomorrow. The awards recognise prominent and inspirational environmental leaders from each region of the world, and each Champion is nominated on the basis of the impact they have made at policy level through leadership, vision and creativity.
The winners are to be honoured at a gala event hosted by UNEP, Singapore’s Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources and the Singapore Tourism Board with the support of various sponsors and partners, such as the Lien Foundation, CNN, Time, Singapore Environment Council, Channel News Asia and Today.
The event itself and the stories of each of the Champions are to be broadcast across the Asia Pacific region by CNN and will feature in Fortune and Time magazines.
Dr Tewolde has been made a Champion of the Earth for his work in negotiating at various biodiversity-related fora, in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Recognition is also given for his efforts in building a strong group of well-prepared African negotiators who initiated and took the lead in the Group of 77 and China Group, a result of which saw Africa maintain a united, strong and progressive position on various issues such as no patents on living materials and the recognition of community rights, which have strengthened the G77 and China’s negotiating positions. He was instrumental in securing recommendations from the African Union (AU) encouraging African countries to develop and implement community rights, a common position on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and a clear stance against patents on life. He also guided the drafting of the AU model legislation for community rights, which is being used as the common model by all African countries.
Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union, and Massoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s first female vice-president, are among Dr Tweolde’s fellow Champions; Gorbachev for his work in international environmental politics and Ebtekar for championing cleaner production methods in the petrochemical industry.
ENDS