The Brazilian environmental organization Amazonas Sustainable Foundation is the winner of this year’s Gulbenkian Prize, announced on Monday the Portuguese foundation in a statement sent to newsrooms. The prize, worth 250,000 euros, will be delivered by the President on Wednesday at a ceremony taking place at the Amphitheatre Outdoor Foundation.
Created in honor of his founder, the Gulbenkian prize is awarded to a person or institution, Portuguese or foreign, who has distinguished in the defense of the essential values of the human condition.
This year, the jury of the prize, chaired by Jorge Sampaio , distinguished among 75 applications, a Brazilian environmental organization that has been highlighted in the defense of the Amazon forest and its communities. The jury praised the action of this organization, operating in a “world so critical area like the Amazon,” develops projects to “reduce deforestation” and “preserve biodiversity, contributing to improve the quality of life of traditional populations.” The jury stressed that this distinction is “a strong signal” of the importance of environmental issues in a year marked by a historic agreement on climate change signed at the UN for a record number of countries.
Created in 2007 Banco Bradesco in partnership with the Government of the State of Amazonas, the Amazonas sustainable Foundation is a non-governmental Brazilian non-profit organization, whose mission is the protection and enhancement of forest, promoting sustainable involvement, environmental conservation and improving the quality of life of coastal communities of the State of Amazonas. To this end, has been implementing with great success, a number of programs that, in 2015, involved 574 communities, benefiting over 40,000 people.
Quoted in Gulbenkian statement, Virgílio Viana, director general of Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, expressed his “honor” and “recognized” for obtaining prize, dedicating it to the whole team “that engages passionately and with great seriousness and professionalism in the enormous challenges” of the foundation.
according to Viana, “the resources will be allocated to programs and projects developed with the hundreds of communities” with which the foundation works, adding that, “as all funds received by the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, this feature will be audited by PWC and will be sent to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation a report detailing the premium investment. “
in projects of the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation highlights the Bolsa Floresta Program, which promotes workshops addressed to riverine families on climate change and services environmental, warning of the negative effects of opening up new areas of grazed in primary forests. Already the Education Program and Health develops efforts to widen and improve the provision of public health services and education in the communities to implement professional training projects, entrepreneurship, comprehensive early childhood care, exchange of knowledge, encouraging reading, recycling solid waste and agro-ecological and permaculture practices. Also the Innovative Solutions Program has encouraged projects to improve production, product quality and yield of the population through innovative devices and equipment, encouraging good practices and safety procedures.
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