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 continues striving to stop and reverse biodiversity loss while simultaneously confronting interconnected challenges, including climate change, food security, and human well-being. In this landscape, international recognition initiatives play an essential part in highlighting effective strategies, circulating knowledge, and motivating action across sectors and borders. One notable example is the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity, an international award devoted to acknowledging individuals whose efforts have produced a tangible impact on conserving and sustainably managing the planet’s biological diversity.
The nomination process for the 2026 edition of the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity is now underway, inviting the public to recommend individuals whose achievements reflect notable leadership, creative approaches, and lasting influence. Submissions can be made from 2 February to 31 March 2026 via the official platform of the AEON Environmental Foundation. By opening nominations to everyone, the Prize strengthens its dedication to openness and inclusivity, ensuring that meaningful contributions from a wide range of regions and fields gain recognition on the 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.
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 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.
At the heart of the initiative lies a commitment to worldwide collaboration
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, created in 1992, stands as the primary global framework that directs biodiversity conservation, encourages sustainable use, and ensures fair sharing of benefits from genetic resources, and through its involvement, the CBD Secretariat positions 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
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, 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 comprehensive approach reflects the intricate nature of biodiversity challenges and stresses that no single route can stand alone. By acknowledging accomplishments across these areas, the Prize fosters dialogue among sectors and underscores the importance of coordinated, integrated strategies.
A decade influenced by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
The significance of the MIDORI Prize has steadily increased alongside the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), approved during the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in 2022. This Framework serves as a worldwide roadmap designed to stop and reverse biodiversity decline by 2030, outlining 23 practical targets aimed at confronting the main causes of ecological degradation while advancing sustainable use and fair 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 it was established during the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010, the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity has recognized 21 individuals from 20 countries. This geographic diversity underscores the global nature of biodiversity challenges and the universal relevance of conservation efforts. From tropical forests and coral reefs to urban ecosystems and agricultural landscapes, the work of past recipients demonstrates that impactful action can take many forms.
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.
Community involvement and the selection process
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 anticipated to offer a space for thoughtful exchange and discussion at a crucial moment for biodiversity governance, and by bringing together award recipients, policymakers, scholars, and practitioners, these events will nurture shared insight and underscore the urgent importance 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.
