The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on November 22 announced its 2022 Champions of the Earth, honouring a conservationist, an enterprise, an economist, a women’s rights activist, and a wildlife biologist for their transformative action to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation.
Winners
- UNEP’s 2022 Champions of the Earth are: Arcenciel (Lebanon), Constantino (Tino) Aucca Chutas (Peru), Sir Partha Dasgupta (United Kingdom), Dr Purnima Devi Barman (India) and Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet (Cameroon).
Dr Purnima Devi Barman
- Dr Purnima Devi Barman (India), honoured in the Entrepreneurial Vision category, is a wildlife biologist who leads the “Hargila Army”, an all-female grassroots conservation movement dedicated to protecting the Greater Adjutant Stork from extinction.
- The women create and sell textiles with motifs of the bird, helping to raise awareness about the species while building their own financial independence.
- To protect the stork, Barman knew she had to change perceptions of the bird, known locally as “hargila” in Assamese (meaning “bone swallower”) and mobilized a group of village women to help her.
- Today the “Hargila Army” consists of over 10,000 women. Barman has also helped to provide the women with weaving looms and yarn so they can create and sell textiles decorated with motifs of the hargila.
Champions of the Earth
- The Champions of the Earth is the United Nations’ highest environmental honour. The award celebrates individuals and groups whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment.
- By recognizing the successes that are being achieved on the environmental frontlines, the award seeks to inspire hope and action for a more sustainable future.
- The Champions of the Earth are environmental trail blazers and affirm that humanity has the ingenuity and the ambition to protect and restore our environment.
