Eleven projects, from Brazil to Zimbabwe, have won the Lush Spring Prize 2017. They received a total of £200,000, to be shared between them, to support their work for environmental and social regeneration.
The winners demonstrated the variety of methods that can be put in place to create a more regenerative society: from restoring degraded landscapes to creating platforms that give a voice to marginalized communities. One of the winners, the Timbaktu Collective, received an award for its work in the Anantapur district of southern India, a drought-affected region currently facing an ecologically challenging situation. Since 1991, Timbaktu has worked with 20,763 families on community conservation, nature restoration and social and economic emancipation. The Collective's work presents viable models for "making markets work for poor people" and the environment.
Siddharth Rao, Timbaktu's Director of Ecology and Conservation commented: "Nothing is more important than maintaining a healthy relationship with nature and the environment. As a society, we forget that it was in our interest to take this into account in our quest for development and profit.
The Spring Prize tends to show once again that collective action and community-led efforts are appreciated and valuable."
The winners of the 2017 Lush Spring Prize received their awards at a two-day event at Emerson College in East Sussex, England. Emerson College is surrounded by organic farms that illustrate the regenerative practices embedded in the economy of some of England's rural areas.
Videos and images of the event are available on springprize.org
Regeneration is the key to preserving livelihoods and economies for future generations, and to helping damaged environments and communities. It is made possible by holistic systems designed to create "win-win" scenarios, where people work in harmony with nature and each other.
The Lush Spring Prize 2017 was created to support this approach.
Find out more about all the award-winning projects, as well as the 52 pre-selected projects: www.springprize.org
