Alex Rose-Innes
Adjany Costa (29) of Angola in Africa had been selected as one of seven winners across the world for the Young Champions of the Earth Prize for her efforts to conserve precious water and biodiversity hotspots in Angola.
Working with the Luchaze community in the eastern highlands of Angola, she is also actively taking action to offset damages done by thirty years of civil war by removing landmines left behind. As part of her efforts, Costa is teaching communities to stop environmental degradation and addressing unsustainable agriculture practises which go hand-in-hand with deforestation.
With many communities returning to their farmland after the protracted war, it had become critical to protect the vital ecosystem of the Okavango River Basin which flows through Angola and has more than one million people across Africa depend on its wetlands and water resources. Especially the Miombo woodland is of unique importance to the country as it traps water and nurtures the rich biodiversity of the area.
With world leaders currently gathering for the Climate Action Summit and General Assembly, climate and environmental issues would feature most prominently. African youth leaders had already starting taking steps to secure a green future for the continent and address challenges regarding fauna and flora to sustain the entire ecosystem.
“We depend on ecosystems for survival and more so do poor rural communities. We must be mindful about how our way of living impacts our environment and work with indigenous communities that depend on them to improve their livelihoods through conservation,” Costa said.
A global jury consisting of top executives from the world’s leading environmental organisations such as the United Nations selected the eventual winners from more than 1 000 participants. The prestigious Young Champions of the Earth prize is awarded every year by UN Environmental Programme to young environmentalists between the ages of 18 and 30 for their outstanding ideas to protect the environment.
Over the next year, the innovative and impactful initiatives of the winners would be documented on social media, via regular news updates and video blogs.
Young Champions of the Earth
The Young Champions of the Earth Prize was first started in 2017, offering the prestigious and highly successful Champions of the Earth platform – with laureates including heads of state, inspiring scientists and environmental visionaries.
UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
