MICHEL BATISSE, FRENCH SCIENTIST, WINS PREMIER UN ENVIRONMENT PRIZE

Press Release
UNEP/77

MICHEL BATISSE, FRENCH SCIENTIST, WINS PREMIER UN ENVIRONMENT PRIZE

Award Ceremony To Be Held in New York on 17 November

(Reissued as received from UNEP.)

NAIROBI/NEW YORK, 1 November (UNEP) -- The United Nations Environment Programme announced today that this year's UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize has been awarded to noted French scientist Dr. Michel Batisse, for his outstanding contributions to the conservation of the earth's natural resources, the protection of the terrestrial and marine environment and the promotion of sustainable development.

The prize, worth $200,000 and considered one of the most prestigious environmental awards in the world, will be presented at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 17 November.

"Dr. Batisse has been the architect and promoter of some of the most innovative and significant environmental research and training programmes conducted at the global and regional level", said Lord Clinton-Davis, Chairman of the Selection Committee. "He has always used his talent and knowledge to bring together large numbers of scientists to work on common environmental objectives of major importance to humankind.”

One of Dr. Batisse's greatest contributions was the organization of the Man and Biosphere (MAB) Conference in Paris in 1968, a pioneering event which paved the way for the historic 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and which advocated what would become known as sustainable development.

The MAB Conference resulted in the establishment of biosphere reserves where the conservation of biological diversity is combined with research, monitoring and education. Those areas are recognized today as the best way of implementing sustainable development and preserving biological diversity in cooperation with local communities. The world network of biosphere reserves now comprises some 368 sites in 91 countries.

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, said, "Dr. Batisse played a key role in developing the concept of ‘integrated surveys'. His awareness of failures in the delivery of foreign aid led him to advocate interdisciplinary approaches based on solid scientific evidence for the formulation and implementation of sound socio-economic development projects". "His experience was widely used in the

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preparation of the UNEP Conference on Desertification in 1977, and his involvement in establishing a number of national centres, including the Jodhpur Desert Research Institute in India, the Negev Desert Institute in Israel and the Egyptian Desert Institute, has greatly contributed to global research on arid lands."

Dr. Batisse is also the driving force behind the Mediterranean Blue Plan where all bordering countries and the European Union cooperate towards sustainable development in this crucial region.

Dr. Batisse, on receiving news of the award, said, "It is a supreme honour to find myself in the company of the pioneers of the environmental movement who have received this prize before me, and whom I have had the privilege of meeting during the course of my career”. "It is particularly meaningful to receive this accolade from an organization in whose birth I, in a small way, contributed".

The UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize, sponsored by the Nippon Foundation and founded by the late Ryoichi Sasakawa, has been awarded annually since 1984 to individuals who have made outstanding global contributions to the management and protection of the environment.

Past winners include: Nobel Laureate, Mario J. Molina for discovering a new reaction sequence involving chlorine peroxide, which accounts for most of the ozone destruction in the Antarctic; Chico Mendes, the rubber tapper from Brazil who died leading the fight against destruction by cattle ranchers of the rainforest; Lester Brown, Founder of the Worldwatch Institute, whose writings were instrumental in alerting the world about the threats to the biosphere; M.S. Swaminathan of India, father of the economic ecology movement; and Ian Kiernan of Australia, founder of the “Clean Up the World” Campaign.

The 2000 prize winner was selected on 4 July by an independent and distinguished panel of international leaders and environmentalists chaired by Lord Clinton-Davis, Chairman of Europe 21, Joint President of the Society of Labour Lawyers, a life peer of the House of Lords and former Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry in the United Kingdom.

For more information and to obtain 2001 nomination forms, please contact: Tore J. Brevik, Spokesman/Director UNEP Communications and Public Information, tel: (254-2) 62-3292, fax: (254-2) 62-3927, e-mail: tore.brevik@unep.org or Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox, Secretary, UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya, tel: (254-2) 62-3401, fax: (254-2) 62-3692, e-mail: elisabeth.guilbaud-cox@unep.org; or visit the Web site: http://www.unep.org/sasakawa2. In New York, please contact UNEP's Information Officer, Jim Sniffen, tel: 212-963-8094, e-mail: info@nyo.unep.org.

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