【Brief Biography: Melina Sakiyama】
Co-founder, Global Youth Biodiversity Network

In the context of her participation in the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010, Ms. Melina Sakiyama met other young people who shared her vision. Together with Mr. Christian Schwarzer, she co-founded the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), with the aim to create a global coalition of empowered youth and youth organizations to build a shared future in harmony with nature. As part of the team, Ms. Sakiyama led efforts to design capacity-building and youth empowerment programmes that supported hundreds of young leaders and youth-led biodiversity conservation initiatives, thus contributing to the implementation of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the objectives of the Convention. The Network comprises 551 youth groups, organizations and movements from 145 countries who participate and collaborate with each other on project implementation, policy-making and awareness-raising on biodiversity, and continues to expand across borders and issue areas.

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【Brief Biography: Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy】
Founder, Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW)

In 2007, Mr. Wirsiy founded the Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch, which focus on solutions to environmental and gender issues. The initiative works with the slogan “think globally, act locally”; it involves local communities in forest conservation and regeneration efforts to collect forest seeds and seedlings, develop tree nurseries, plant forest trees and do forest patrols. Mr. Wirsiy’s apiculture initiatives provided micro-financing opportunities for women, brought sustainable sources of income to communities and reduced bushfires drastically in the regions. He has been leading environmental educational campaign to raise the awareness of hundreds of thousands of forest people and has contributed largely in the regeneration of biodiversity hotspots. Mr. Wirsiy has empowered bee farmers and organized them to honey cooperatives to increase honey quality and quantity for a better market.

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[Brief Biography: Paul Hebert]
Dr. Paul Hebert holds a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Biodiversity at the University of Guelph where he is the Director of its Centre for Biodiversity Genomics. For the past 20 years, his research has focused on the development of an innovative technique termed DNA barcoding which can almost instantly assign any organism to its proper species. The resulting biodiversity data represent a “global public library” which now contains information on more than 10 million specimens. By establishing the International Barcode of Life Consortium, he created a research alliance which is revolutionizing our understanding of planetary biodiversity. Dr. Hebert’s work is reinforcing our appreciation for the value of nature, aiding its protection, facilitating biodiversity monitoring, and providing everyone with easy access to biodiversity knowledge.

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The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is a prestigious biennial international prize organized by the AEON Environmental Foundation and the CBD Secretariat. It honours individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

[Chairman]
Takuya Okada
Chairman, AEON Environmental Foundation

[Acting Chairman]
Kunio Iwatsuki 
Director, AEON Environmental Foundation

[Judges] *alphabetical order
Daizaburo Kuroda
Senior Fellow, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

Susan Gardner
Director, Ecosystems Division, United Nations Environment Programme)

Anne McDonald
Professor, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Sophia University

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema
Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Representative of Co-organizer of the MIDORI Prize

Shiro Wakui
Distinguished Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University

Ning Wu
Director General, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Following the award ceremony, the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity 2018 Winners’Forum was held.Question-and-answer sessions withthe winners were moderated by invitee Mr. Takejiro Sueyoshi, Trustee of the AEON Environmental Foundation and Chairperson of the World Wide Fund for Nature, Japan (WWF Japan).

In the United Nations Environment Program, it wasreportedthat the earth’s temperature wasestimated to increase by about three degrees by the end of this century. While respondingto climate change andsolving global environment problemsare urgent issues, there are many instances of casesresulted in specific changes, such asthe conservation activities inthe Amazon region, whichholds around 10% of theworld’s carbon stock in terrestrial ecosystems, establishment of protected areas in Colombia and Palau, and the Work for Water Program in South Africa.

While carrying out conservation activities, we now also needto be more creative. Imagine what we couldachieve for biodiversity conservation and human wellbeing and welfareif we all came together!If everything came together, we would startto see a world in which all people equitably and inclusively experience the diverse benefits of connectedness with nature wherever they live, work, learn, or play and in the process also learn to give back to nature and the earth through actions that support nature and parksof all forms.
Let’suniteand work together tochange the world!

To maintain theHIMAsystem, we needto promote HIMA’s empowerment, to respect bottom-up approaches, and to produce economic incentives. In order to realize these, one approachis to collaborate with the private sector, such as in branding agricultural productsmade of natural resourcesfromHIMA. It is also important for people, especially the young( Homat AL-Hima )as agents for change,tolearn about the related communities and regions, and seek outjobsthatco-existwith the local nature. This will help them respect and make them more aware of the need to protect such regions. Creating jobs in the regionsisthekey.

First of all, we all need to discuss how to createa common framework for the future. In this process, a common objective will bedetermined, and by reflecting that objective in policies, legislations and practices, it will bepossible to move toward realization of the goal.

The problemsof biodiversity loss and decline of ecosystem services are nothing new. As seen in “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson in 1962, the problem has been with us for some timeand has been discussedat the United Nations Conference on the Human Environmentand the Convention on Biological Diversity, and so on. But,as the 2010 biodiversity Targetconservation has not been achieved, the world has failed tosolve this problem and the situation has only beenworsening. In Malaysia, tropical rainforests arerapidly disappearing due to economic activity.

The biggestfactorinthis situationis the lack of people’s perception. In order to improve on this, we must be persuasive, reasonable and easy to understand.In addition, we need to show that wealth and job creationas well ashuman happiness are things that can onlycome about if we havebiodiversity.Only a persuasive “why” resonating throughout society will be successful in waking us up to theurgent needto negotiateover the who, what, where, when and how ofhaltingdisastrous biodiversity loss. Here, three qualities are asked ofscientists in order to convince other stakeholders about the serious effectsof loss of biodiversity:Credibility,Relevance, and Legitimacy. Here are the factors of why one should make a difference, i.e., the one who couldchange the situation in the future.

“If humans wereto be wiped offfrom the surface of the earth today, the birds and the trees would still be heretomorrow. If the birds and trees wereto go extinct today, humans would be wiped out from the surface of the earth tomorrow.”

In 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were set and the Paris agreement was adopted. As part of this process, roles have been partially shifting from state to non-state actors. While policies are still important, the roles of all of us, such as the private sector, civil societies, and so on, those who should be implementing the policies, have been increasing.

Dr. Zakri introduced to us the wise words of a Native American in the lecture. I would like to conclude this forum by introducing another Native American saying.

“When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money”.

Octavio Paz, a Mexican writer and Nobel Laureate, says that recognizing how we all differ can be expressed in terms of culture, dialog and love. I believe this attitude ought to be extended to nature as well, the problems of which we should tackle with modesty and objectivity. Such attitude will restore nature to its rightful place as our common home and lead to a bottom-up approach that can change societies from a civilian perspective.

In addition to these efforts, it is important for governments to cooperate. This is especially true in Russia, where the support of the President’s Office plays a key role. Incorporating conservation activities into governmental strategies at the highest level has profound significance.

Theme: “Economic Decarbonization and Biodiversity: Implications of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals”

In September 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit, and in December of the same year the Paris Agreement was adopted at COP 21. It is considered that biodiversity and climate change can together fundamentally change the future of nations, businesses, individual lifestyles and societies, and these two issues were chosen as the theme for a panel discussion, which turned into a lively debate.

Program (2016 Winners’Forum) (PDF/17.3MB)