As ecosystems face unprecedented pressure, recognizing individuals who drive meaningful change has become essential to sustaining life on Earth. The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity highlights those efforts and amplifies their impact worldwide.
The global community keeps working to halt and reverse biodiversity loss while also addressing interconnected pressures such as climate change, food security, and human well-being. Within this context, international recognition programs play a vital role by showcasing successful approaches, spreading knowledge, and inspiring action across different sectors and regions. A prominent illustration of this is the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity, an international award dedicated to honoring individuals whose contributions have delivered a concrete impact on conserving and sustainably managing the planet’s biological diversity.
The call for nominations for the 2026 edition of the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is now open, inviting members of the public to put forward candidates whose contributions demonstrate leadership, innovation, and long-term impact. Nominations may be submitted between 2 February and 31 March 2026 through the official platform of the AEON Environmental Foundation. By opening the process to the public, the Prize reinforces its commitment to inclusivity and transparency, ensuring that impactful work from diverse regions and disciplines can be recognized on a global stage.
A prize designed to elevate biodiversity on the global agenda
The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity was created to underscore the fundamental role that biodiversity plays in sustaining ecosystems and supporting human societies. Healthy biodiversity underpins food systems, regulates climate, protects water resources, and contributes to economic stability and cultural identity. Despite this, biodiversity loss has accelerated in recent decades, driven by habitat destruction, pollution, overexploitation of natural resources, and climate change.
Framed within this context, the Prize serves not only as an honor but also as a means to build awareness, highlighting significant individual initiatives that draw public interest through practical solutions and underscoring that committed leadership can achieve tangible environmental outcomes. By granting this recognition, the Prize helps bridge gaps between scientific understanding, policy development, and on-the-ground implementation, encouraging collaboration across diverse disciplines and sectors.
Since it was first established, the Prize has celebrated individuals whose contributions extend across numerous domains, ranging from scientific inquiry and community-driven conservation to policy advocacy and environmental education. This breadth underscores the understanding that safeguarding biodiversity cannot be accomplished through isolated initiatives, but instead relies on coordinated efforts that blend science, governance, and active public involvement.
Global cooperation stands at the core of the initiative
The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is co-organized by the AEON Environmental Foundation and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This partnership brings together a philanthropic foundation with a global environmental governance body, ensuring that the Prize aligns with international biodiversity objectives while remaining grounded in real-world impact.
The Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted in 1992, provides the principal global framework for biodiversity conservation, sustainable use, and the fair sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. Through its involvement, the CBD Secretariat helps position the MIDORI Prize within broader international efforts, linking individual achievements to collective global goals.
The 2026 Award Ceremony and Award Winners Forum are set to take place on 27 August 2026 in Tokyo, Japan, events expected to help build global momentum ahead of the seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 17), which is scheduled for Yerevan, Armenia. COP 17 will be organized under the theme “Taking action for Nature,” highlighting both implementation and accountability during a pivotal period for worldwide biodiversity commitments.
Celebrating outstanding achievements across diverse fields of endeavor
One hallmark of the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is its ability to honor outstanding achievements across a range of fields, and instead of centering on a single discipline, the Prize recognizes that meaningful advances in biodiversity conservation rely on complementary efforts that span scientific, social, and political spheres.
Historically, award categories have included implementation, science and research, and policy and enlightenment. Implementation-focused recipients are often those who translate knowledge into action, delivering conservation outcomes through field projects, community engagement, or sustainable resource management. Science and research honorees contribute by advancing understanding of ecosystems, species, and ecological processes, providing the evidence base needed for informed decision-making. Policy and enlightenment awardees, meanwhile, play a critical role in shaping legislation, influencing governance frameworks, and raising public awareness.
This holistic approach mirrors the complexity of biodiversity challenges and reinforces the idea that no single pathway is sufficient on its own. By celebrating achievements across these domains, the Prize encourages cross-sector dialogue and highlights the value of integrated strategies.
A decade shaped by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
The importance of the MIDORI Prize has grown consistently as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) gained adoption, a plan ratified at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in 2022. This Framework functions as a global guide intended to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, presenting 23 actionable targets that address the primary drivers of ecological damage while promoting sustainable use and equitable benefit-sharing.
Achieving the ambitions of the KMGBF calls for a society-wide effort that brings together governments, the private sector, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and individual citizens. The MIDORI Prize strongly supports this vision by celebrating individuals who showcase leadership and inventive approaches in advancing these goals. In doing so, it transforms the Framework’s targets into tangible examples of progress, making once-abstract objectives clearer and more accessible.
As the 2030 deadline approaches, the urgency to scale meaningful solutions becomes increasingly clear, and recognition initiatives such as the MIDORI Prize can accelerate this momentum by highlighting successful strategies and encouraging their implementation in a wide range of contexts.
Shaping a heritage of far‑reaching global influence
Since its creation during the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010, the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity has honored 21 individuals representing 20 countries, reflecting the worldwide scope of biodiversity issues and the shared importance of conservation. Spanning tropical rainforests, coral reef habitats, urban environments, and farmland, the achievements of previous recipients show that meaningful progress can emerge through many different approaches.
The heritage of the Prize extends far beyond recognizing individuals, as its award ceremonies and associated forums open opportunities to share knowledge, form networks, and foster cooperation, enabling winners to reflect on their experiences and learn from one another. These exchanges help cultivate a global community of practice dedicated to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
Moreover, publicly recognizing an awardee can elevate their reputation and credibility, enabling them to secure funding, influence policy choices, and expand their initiatives. Through this recognition, the Prize becomes a potent catalyst that magnifies personal achievements and fosters broader systemic change.
Public participation and the nomination process
By inviting nominations from members of the public, the MIDORI Prize reinforces the idea that biodiversity conservation is a shared responsibility. This open approach allows communities, organizations, and individuals to highlight work that might otherwise remain under-recognized, particularly in regions or sectors with limited visibility.
The nomination period for the 2026 Prize runs from 2 February to 31 March 2026. Submissions are reviewed according to criteria that emphasize tangible impact, innovation, and alignment with global biodiversity objectives. Through this process, the Prize seeks to identify individuals whose contributions offer valuable lessons and inspiration for others working in the field.
Public participation in the nomination process also serves an educational purpose, helping expand public insight into biodiversity challenges and the people striving to address them. As individuals look into potential nominees and their work, they develop a more concrete understanding of the practical efforts that support environmental sustainability.
Looking forward to 2026 and the years that follow
As worldwide focus shifts toward COP 17 and the continued rollout of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, initiatives such as the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity take on ever greater significance, sustaining momentum, highlighting achievements, and reminding the international community that individual leadership continues to be a powerful catalyst for transformation.
The 2026 Award Ceremony and Award Winners Forum in Tokyo are expected to provide a platform for reflection and dialogue at a pivotal moment for biodiversity governance. By bringing together awardees, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, these events will contribute to shared learning and reinforce the urgency of coordinated action.
Across the decade poised to define the planet’s biological diversity, recognizing and supporting those who set the benchmark becomes not just symbolic but a strategic pledge to the ideas, practices, and partnerships vital for safeguarding nature now and in the future. The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity stands as compelling proof of the impact that committed individuals can achieve when their work is acknowledged, amplified, and connected to global sustainability efforts.
