As natural systems face unprecedented pressure, recognizing those who drive meaningful advances has become essential for safeguarding life across the planet.The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity highlights these efforts and extends their impact throughout the world.
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 nomination phase for the 2026 edition of the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is currently in progress, encouraging the public to put forward individuals whose work demonstrates exceptional leadership, innovative methods, and enduring impact. Entries may be submitted from 2 February to 31 March 2026 through the official platform of the AEON Environmental Foundation. By allowing open participation, the Prize reinforces its commitment to transparency and inclusion, ensuring that valuable contributions from diverse regions and disciplines receive recognition on a global scale.
A distinction crafted to bring biodiversity to the forefront of the global agenda
The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity was created to underscore the vital role biodiversity plays in sustaining resilient ecosystems and supporting human life. Strong biodiversity underpins food systems, moderates climate patterns, protects water resources, and enhances both economic prosperity and cultural traditions. Nevertheless, biodiversity decline has accelerated in recent years, driven by habitat degradation, pollution, the overuse of natural resources, and the effects of climate change.
Set against this context, the Prize functions not only as an accolade but also as a vehicle for raising awareness, showcasing notable individual efforts to capture public attention with practical responses and emphasizing that dedicated leadership can deliver concrete environmental results. Through its recognition, the Prize narrows the divide between scientific insight, policy formation, and real-world action, fostering cooperation among different fields and sectors.
Since its inception, the Prize has honored individuals whose work spans a wide range of fields, from scientific research and community-based conservation to policy advocacy and environmental education. This diversity reflects an understanding that biodiversity conservation cannot be achieved through isolated efforts, but requires coordinated action that integrates science, governance, and societal engagement.
International collaboration at the heart of the initiative
The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is jointly organized by the AEON Environmental Foundation and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a collaboration that unites a philanthropic institution with a leading body in global environmental governance to ensure the Prize reflects international biodiversity goals while staying closely connected to practical, real‑world outcomes.
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 will be held on 27 August 2026 in Tokyo, Japan. These events are expected to contribute to global momentum around the seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 17), scheduled to take place in Yerevan, Armenia. COP 17 will be convened under the theme “Taking action for Nature,” emphasizing implementation and accountability during a critical phase for global biodiversity commitments.
Honoring remarkable accomplishments spanning a wide array of pursuits
A defining trait of the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is its capacity to celebrate remarkable contributions across diverse sectors, and rather than focusing on just one field, the Prize acknowledges that substantial progress in biodiversity conservation stems from interconnected scientific, social, and political efforts.
Historically, these award categories have covered practical execution, scientific inquiry, and both policy development and public education. Individuals honored for implementation are usually those who transform knowledge into real-world action, delivering conservation outcomes through on-the-ground projects, partnerships with local communities, or responsible resource stewardship. Recipients recognized for science and research deepen insight into ecosystems, species, and ecological processes, providing the evidence needed to guide informed decisions. At the same time, those acknowledged for policy and enlightenment play an essential role in crafting legislation, shaping governance, and elevating public understanding.
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 relevance of the MIDORI Prize has grown in parallel with the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), agreed at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in 2022. The Framework represents a global blueprint to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, setting out 23 action-oriented targets that address drivers of degradation while promoting sustainable use and equitable benefit-sharing.
Achieving the ambitions of the KMGBF requires a whole-of-society approach, involving governments, the private sector, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and individuals. The MIDORI Prize directly supports this vision by recognizing individuals who embody leadership and innovation in advancing these objectives. In doing so, it helps translate the Framework’s targets into visible examples of progress, making abstract goals more tangible and relatable.
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.
Building a legacy of global impact
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 legacy of the Prize reaches well beyond honoring individuals, as its award ceremonies and related forums create spaces for exchanging knowledge, building networks, and encouraging collaboration, allowing winners to discuss their experiences and learn from each other. Such interactions nurture a worldwide community of practice committed 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.
Community engagement and the selection procedure
By seeking nominations directly from the public, the MIDORI Prize strengthens the notion that caring for biodiversity is a collective duty, enabling communities, organizations, and individuals to bring forward efforts that might otherwise go unnoticed, especially in areas or fields where recognition is limited.
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 global attention turns to COP 17 and the ongoing implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, initiatives like the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity gain even deeper relevance, maintaining progress, showcasing key accomplishments, and reaffirming to the international community that individual leadership remains a potent driver of meaningful change.
The 2026 Award Ceremony and Award Winners Forum in Tokyo are expected to provide an opportunity for meaningful dialogue and reflection at a pivotal time for biodiversity governance, and by uniting award recipients, policymakers, scholars, and practitioners, these gatherings will cultivate collective understanding and highlight the pressing need for 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.