|
ST ANDREWS PRIZE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
|
|
|
||
|
Following receipt of 211 entries from 60 countries, three finalists have been chosen for this year’s prestigious St Andrews Prize for the Environment. The winner will receive $75,000 and the two runners-up will each receive $25,000. The prize, a joint environmental initiative by the University of St Andrews in Scotland and the international integrated energy company ConocoPhillips, aims to find practical solutions to environmental challenges from around the globe. Sir Crispin Tickell, Chairman of the St Andrews Prize for the Environment Trustees, said: 'We are delighted that the Prize has become so well established and in this, our thirteenth successive year, it continues to attract such a range of innovative projects from all over the world. We very much look forward to meeting this year's finalists and to hearing about their projects which are helping to make the world a better place.' The finalists' presentations will be heard at a seminar at St Andrews University and the winner will be announced on Thursday, 5 May 2011. This year's finalists are:
Meshanani (Amboseli) Project The focus of the project is to re-establish the ecological balance in the desertified area around the Amboseli National Park, in Kenya. The project has implemented the Contour Trench Technique to increase the water retention capacity of the soil. Rainwater is captured in trenches dug along the contour lines of the hills from where it permeates into the ground creating a sub-surface flow towards the depressions in the land. The technique enables water to be made available all year and the area to remain evergreen. Once the hydrological and ecological balance has been sufficiently restored, the growing of food crops and breeding of livestock is re-instated providing a sustainable, habitable environment with a positive economic outlook for the local Masai community. BioLite Solid biomass fires are used for cooking by nearly half the global population. These open fires burn inefficiently and release high levels of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and black carbon into the atmosphere making them amongst the most greenhouse intensive systems in the world per unit of energy delivered. Clean energy technology company BioLite has developed a cookstove that slashes emissions by up to 95 per cent and generates electricity for charging LED lights, mobile phones and other devices for use in rural areas where open fires are prevalent. The stove benefits the user and the world at large, by providing improved air quality and a clean, economical source of electricity inside the home as well as dramatically reducing emissions for a healthier environment. Coconut Oil The 2004 tsunami took a heavy toll on the Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal just north of Sumatra, and their population of 30,000 people. The coconut is the main crop of these islands and the dried coconut kernel called copra is the chief export. Traditional techniques used by the Nicobarese to produce virgin coconut oil, involves wrapping grated coconut kernel in a cloth and squeezing it, a process which removes a very low percentage of oil. The project team developed and field-tested a hydraulic press, which can process the gratings from 60 coconuts per hour thereby doubling the earnings per coconut over the traditional extraction method. Coconut oil is in great demand for its medicinal properties and as a health food and the enhanced extraction of coconut oil by the press is significantly increasing the incomes of the local population. Notes Now in its thirteenth successive year, the St Andrews Prize for the Environment has attracted entries in the past on topics as diverse as sustainable development in the Amazon rainforest, urban re-generation, recycling, health and water issues and renewable energy. Submissions are assessed by a panel of Trustees representing science, industry and Government, with the award going to the project the Trustees consider displays the best combination of good science, economic realism and political acceptability. Contact For further media information, photographs, and to arrange interviews please contact Doug Allsop or Dick Mutch at: Mearns and Gill Public Relations |
|||||
|
|||||
