UNDP Announces Equator Prize 2025

Award: Equator Prize 2025 (UNDP) – also called “Nobel Prize for Biodiversity Conservation”

Theme (2025): Nature for Climate Action – focus on youth & women-led climate action
Announcement Date: 9 August 2025 (International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples)
Global Winners: 10 (from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Tanzania)
Total Nominations: 700+ from 103 countries
Prize Money: USD 10,000 per winner
Recognition Platforms: UN General Assembly & UN Climate Change Conference (COP30, Belém, Brazil)

Prize launched in 2002

 Awarded biennially

Significance for India / Karnataka

• Highlights the role of rural women-led SHGs in biodiversity conservation.

• Reinforces community-based conservation as an effective model under SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 15 (Life on Land).

• Boosts India’s image in implementing nature-based solutions for sustainable livelihoods.