Edward Selasini
8 November 2008
Arusha — The Equator Initiative, a United Nations-led partnership that supports grassroots efforts in biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation, has selected 25 winners of the Equator Prize 2008.
Chosen from 310 nominations, the winners made innovative entries in areas such as apiculture, eco-tourism, ethno-tourism, afforestation , mangrove restoration, oyster farming, cotton farming, seed banks, micro-credit lending, and animal protection.
Ujamaa Community Resource Trust (UCRT) Board Member Alais Morindai announced at a reception held at Olasiti Garden that UCRT was awarded after the Technical Advisory Committee of the Equator Prize 2008 evaluated 310 nominated projects from 60 countries within the equatorial belt.
"Of these, 25 chosen as Equator Prize 2008 winners were drawn from a remarkable pool of nominations that reflect the invaluable work of communities across the world in reducing poverty and conserving biodiversity, UCTR emerged the winner" said Morindai
The finalist of this year's prize demonstrated that the challenges of biodiversity loss and depending poverty can be effectively addressed jointly.
Each Equator Prize 2008 winner is testament to the linkages between ecosystem health and human well-being, to the indivisibility of conservation and poverty reduction as policy objectives, and to the significant contributions that local and indigenous communities are making to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
UCRT works with marginalized groups and pastoralists in Northern Tanzania to create land management plans, manage natural resource systems, and explore sustainable income-generation opportunities.
A central component of UCRT's work is mobilizing communities to lobby local and national governments for community land rights and resource entitlements.
UCRT has helped over 20 villages in northern Tanzania - including the biodiversity-rich areas of the Serengeti and Tarangire - secure land and resource tenure, enhance economic benefits of their ecosystems (mainly through ecotourism), and establish community conserved areas based on indigenous management practices.
The UCTR started in 1998 under what was known as TAZAMA Trust, before its official registration in 2002.
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