The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 1300 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in more than 120 countries, working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
CAN members work to achieve this goal through information exchange and the coordinated development of NGO strategy on international, regional, and national climate issues. CAN has regional network hubs that coordinate these efforts around the world.
CAN members place a high priority on both a healthy environment and development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Commission). CAN’s vision is to protect the atmosphere while allowing for sustainable and equitable development worldwide.
Mark and Kristin Sullivan have had a lifelong interest in ecosystem preservation and environmental justice. They began traveling to Africa in 2004. In Rwanda, the Sullivans connected with the people, the cultures, the landscape and the animals. While traveling to one of Rwanda’s national parks, the Sullivans met Vincent and asked him to join them in Nyungwe Forest National Park. It was during that visit that Vincent and the Sullivans bonded with each other and with Nyungwe’s tropical mountain forest with its 13 species of primate including the chimpanzee. The Sullivans visited Rwanda again in 2005-2006.
Rwanda Environment Awareness Organization (REAO) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) created on 05th September 2011 with four Board members. The organization started officially its activities in Rusizi District, Western Province of Rwanda, and registered under the Registration Number: 236/RGB/NGO/2017 of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB). REAO was created to respond to the need of Rwanda’s economy towards Environment Conservation and Protection of Natural Resources which are among the cross-cutting issues of the Rwanda Vision 2020. Rwanda’s economy is heavily dependent on its environment and natural resources, and the livelihoods of communities depend on access, use and management of such resources. Without sound environmental management, development activities in key sectors such as agriculture, industry, infrastructure, commerce, and energy can lead to significant environmental degradation that can undermine economic growth. Thus, there is a need to promote environment awareness and mainstream environment and climate change while addressing national priorities. Priority areas for environment and climate change as cross-cutting issues include:
- Mainstreaming environmental sustainability into productive and social sectors;
- Reducing vulnerability to climate change; and Preventing and controlling pollution.
Earthlife Africa is a non-profit organisation, founded in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1988, that seeks a better life for all people without exploiting other people or degrading their environment. We want to encourage and support individuals, businesses and industries to reduce pollution, minimise waste and protect our natural resources.
What is YEE
Youth and Environment Europe (YEE) is a platform of many European youth organisations that study nature or are active in environmental protection. These member organisations come together from 26 countries. The aim of YEE is to encourage youth to be involved in environmental protection and to provide a platform where these organisations can work together.
YEE gives an opportunity to contact other European organisations, to exchange experiences and ideas and to work together.
All our activities are organised and carried out by young people under 30. YEE organises and encourages all activities that can increase the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of nature and the awareness of environmental problems among young people in Europe.
Our aim is to promote the commitment of youth to the principles of environmental conservation. Therefore, young people’s voluntary actions have to be stimulated for the protection and the rational use of the Earth’s resources. Since environmental problems have no borders, we act together within YEE in order to address these problems in local communities and joint activities. Within international actions, we intend to raise public awareness about environmental problems.
YEE’s mission
YEE aims to unite environmental youth non-profit organisations in Europe in order to enhance international cooperation, increase knowledge about nature, raise awareness of environmental problems and to strengthen participation of youth in environmental decision-making.
Take a look at the YEE promotional materials.
- Supporting the work of member organisations
- Promoting the widest possible exchange of information, ideas and experience among members
- European and local projects (such as training courses, youth exchanges, etc.)
- Environmental educational campaigns
- Publications
- YEE Working Groups
YEE is a member organisation of:
YEE History
Youth and Environment Europe was founded as the European regional branch of the International Youth Federation for Environmental Studies and Conservation (IYF) on the 3rd of August 1983 in Stockholm. The YEE office has been located in three locations. The first YEE office was based in Copenhagen.
IYF established YEE with the cooperation of 15 organisations. Three founding organisations are still members of YEE: Faltbiologerna (Sweden), DJN (Germany), and JNM (Belgium).
In 1986, after the work of a research group on the forest, a new organisation was born from YEE: the European Youth Forest Action (EYFA) that remains active today.
In 1990 the YEE office moved to it’s second location in Utrecht, the Netherlands to locate it more centrally to the member organisations being part of the network at that time.
In 1991, as a further subgroup from EYFA, ASEED started to work as a separate network.
For some years in the 1990’s, a member organisation from Malta hosted a second YEE office in order to deal with the Mediterranean issues closely.
In 1998, the third change of the location of the office occurred. This time the medieval stronghold Toulcuv Dvur in Prague was chosen. Toulcuv Dvur is an ecological center that unites a range of ecological, educational and cultural activities. The area consists of eight hectares of land including wetlands around a little stream. YEE’s office is still located here today.
Currently YEE unites 43 member organisations from 25 countries.
From 2003 YEE started to host volunteers who help as members of the office team in daily work of the organisation.
Today, the office team consists of the General Secretary, Projects Coordinator and 2 volunteers.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
Our goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With over 194 member states, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide. We believe that everyone can play a part in ending hunger.
DSW is focused on youth. We are proud to work alongside today’s youth who will become tomorrow’s leaders.
Over half of the world’s population is under 25, and we have a chance now to release this untapped potential!
Tsavo Trust is a field based, Kenyan not-for-profit conservation organization working towards protecting wildlife and its habitat.Tsavo Trust believes in conserving the vast wilderness of the Tsavo Conservation Area, that encompasses Kenya’s biggest Protected Area, is home to Kenya’s largest elephant population, several iconic Tuskers, numerous high value species and one of the few truly wild places with significant wildlife left in Africa.
This national heritage is under threat and faces multiple challenges including wildlife crime, climate change and habitat loss.
Tsavo Trust works on a unique strategy, in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service and other partners on direct wildlife conservation projects as well as engaging specific local communities in the stewardship of community conservancies, so as to encourage participation in conservation activities that bring many varying benefits to those marginalised people that border the formal Protected Areas.
We are a conservation organization that prides itself as the voice of conservation in the East African region. We do this through evidence based advocacy and engaging different key stakeholders to influence change.
Global Hand is a matching service: a non-profit brokerage facilitating public/ private partnership.
Although today’s world sees many parties wishing to respond to global issues, the problem they often face is connectivity. Who should they partner with and how?
Global Hand is designed to bring together people from all parts of the spectrum. You can use this site to find partners wherever you fit. Your area of interest may be:
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Philanthropy
- Disaster response
- Poverty alleviation
- Advocacy
- Microcredit
- Job Creation
- Guidelines/Best Practice
- Doing business with the poor
- Sustainable Development
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Gifts-in-kind
- Services-in-kind
- Humanitarian Aid
- Fair Trade
- Corporate Volunteering
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) establishes and manages global sustainable standards, known as the GSTC Criteria. There are two sets: Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers, and Industry Criteria for hotels and tour operators. These are the guiding principles and minimum requirements that any tourism business or destination should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources, while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for conservation and poverty alleviation.
The GSTC Criteria form the foundation for GSTC’s role as the global Accreditation Body for Certification Programs that certify hotels/accommodations, tour operators, and destinations as having sustainable policies and practices in place. GSTC does not directly certify any products or services; but it accredits those that do.
The GSTC is an independent and neutral organization, legally registered in the USA as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that represents a diverse and global membership, including UN agencies, NGO’s, national and provincial governments, leading travel companies, hotels, tour operators, individuals and communities – all striving to achieve best practices in sustainable tourism. It is a virtual organization without a main office, with staff and volunteers working from all six populated continents. Financial support from donations, sponsorship, and membership fees allows us to provide services at low costs and to create, revise, and make available the GSTC Criteria.
Membership is open to all interested parties and does not by itself imply endorsement by the GSTC of the policies and practices of the member organization
Ethiopian Environmental Journalists Association (EEJA) is a non-governmental, non-profit and non-partisan local organization founded by senior media professionals interested to contribute their share in areas of media, communication, and sustainable development. EEJA was established in 2006 with the support of Henrich Boll’s foundation of Germany and Panos Ethiopia. EEJA has 47 members drawn from international, private and state-owned media houses.
We are an environmental justice NGO, established in 1999. We work with smallholder farmers, other civil society organisations and government to ensure that people have control over their food, agricultural processes and resources, and other natural resources, within a biodiverse, agroecological and sustainable system.
As a country and as a world, we face multiple food, energy and climate change crises. Within this context, and with a clear commitment to securing, developing and protecting smallholder farmers’ rights, Biowatch South Africa challenges industrial agriculture and demonstrates agroecology as a means of ensuring biodiversity while attaining food and seed sovereignty and social justice.
- Biowatch supports and works with smallholder farmers, building on their traditional farming knowledge to stengthen agroecology practice and secure farmers’ rights.
- Biowatch contributes to building platforms for civil society to develop joint understanding of and action towards securing biodiversity, food sovereignty and social justice.
- Biowatch challenges and supports government to implement policy and practices that promote, facilitate, and actively encourage agroecology, and that safeguard people and land.
- Biowatch resists corporate appropriation of natural resources. Much of our own work, and our work with others, is focused on changing the discourse around, and the disconnect between, the destructive industrialised food system and the devastating impact this is having on our planet and the life we share it with.
Our head office is in Durban and we have a rural office in Mtubatuba, northern KwaZulu-Natal.
The project helps to implement the Africa Policy adopted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). In cooperation with business, it promotes employment in seven African countries, while also raising income and improving working conditions. Young people in particular benefit from training measures and additional employment opportunities.
We help organisations, public authorities and private businesses to optimise their organisational, managerial and production processes. And, of course, GIZ employees advise governments on how to achieve objectives and implement nationwide change processes by incorporating them into legislation and strategies.
DEVELOPMENT WORKERS
Development workers bring their professional expertise to non-governmental and state organisations in partner countries. They provide training and advisory services, and work with our partners to help design projects. Development workers are offered an extensive and attractive financial package with benefits.
The Civil Peace Service (CPS) is a global programme aimed at preventing violence and promoting peace in crisis zones and conflict regions. CPS experts support partner organisations in their commitment for dialogue human rights and peace on a long term basis http://www.giz.de/zfd.
CIM EXPERTS
Integrated expert’ is the term used for experts and managers who put their skills to good use in key positions in developing countries and emerging economies. The term ‘returning expert’ is used for those who have gained technical or managerial skills through study and work in Germany and who then go on to use their knowledge and expertise in their country of origin. The term ‘diaspora experts’ is used for well-qualified and skilled people with a migration background who wish to support their country of origin by putting their expertise to good use as volunteers.
Welcome to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge (BFC) archive! Here you will find a comprehensive history of the BFC program and a curated archive of the ‘best of’ entries reviewed by the program from 2007-2017 making visible the vibrancy and dedication of an emerging field of comprehensive, whole-systems designers. This searchable archive is offered as a resource and tool for educators, the design community, and the general public to use to discover the remarkable ideas and successful projects at work in the world today.
ORIGINS AND HISTORIES
In 2010 Fuller Challenge juror David Orr – the esteemed sustainability educator and author – remarked that human civilization has entered the historical equivalent of shooting the dangerous rapids of a treacherous white-water river. With a broken paddle. Blindfolded.
Buckminster Fuller put it in stark relief with this famous question: Are we heading toward Utopia or Oblivion? He challenged his contemporaries to creatively respond to the urgency of this moment by re-framing the crisis as an opportunity pointing to humanity’s “option to make it – to live successfully without compromising the ability for all of life to thrive.”
Fuller demonstrated through his research and design practice that the resources needed for all forms of life on the planet to live in relative peace and prosperity exist. Creatively deployed, these resources are more than enough to raise the standard of living for everybody.
He called for a revolution by design –not political or military – but a revolution driven by the problem-solving creativity of design combined with the empirical demands of science.
Fuller’s practice took a comprehensive approach, starting with the whole; anticipating future trends and needs; employing the scientific method; and aligned with nature’s operating principles. He saw that this way of thinking and doing was to be the future of design. He called his practice design science. And in the 1960’s he launched the Design Science Revolution with an open call to the world’s creative communities “to make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”
In 2007 The Buckminster Fuller Challenge Prize program reintroduced Bucky’s vision. After extensive research we determined that the development of a competitive prize – an open call to anyone creatively addressing any of the world’s most urgent problems – would enable us to accomplish several goals:
1. honor the legacy of Fuller and create a prestigious program that would encourage innovation and recognize integrity;
2. draw attention and support to the thinkers and doers applying a comprehensive, whole-systems approach to designing solutions to the
great challenges we face today;
3. leverage the power of a prestigious innovation prize to demonstrate the importance of whole systems-thinking and its integral function in design-
thinking;
4. educate a new generation of designers to take up Fuller’s Challenge to transform our world through design, by showcasing world class projects
and celebrating the people behind them”,
Over the program’s ten-year history (2007-2017) the Fuller Challenge attracted thousands of initiatives from across the globe, tackling every conceivable issue facing humanity and the planet today. Each team submitted an application that was subject to a rigorous vetting process in which our esteemed review team and juries invested hundreds of hours of investigation, research, and debate to select our honored entries.
First recognized in 2011 by Metropolis Magazine as “socially responsible design’s highest award”, the program conferred an annual grand prize of
$100,000 to a project that best fulfilled the entrance criteria and embodied what we have called the ‘spirit of the Challenge’. Winning projects are visionary initiatives that address multiple problems simultaneously, and evoke inspiration for others to study and replicate.
The winning team also received with The Omnioculi, a commissioned sculpture created by artist Tom Shannon in collaboration with geodesics expert Joseph Clinton.
While one project was selected as the winner, each year the Fuller Challenge program awarded resources and support to an additional 40-60 projects through our Catalyst Program. These projects typically represented the top 20% of the entry pool and received opportunities for additional funding and investment, pro-bono legal services, fast-track access to accelerator programs, mentorship opportunities, and international press coverage.
The projects included in the archive demonstrate that design can and must be applied to every aspect of the global system, and reveal a groundswell of successful solutions to our most complex and urgent problems.
With an expanded view of design’s scope, we were able to recognize design innovation in places and projects that were unusual and new. And in the process we discovered an extraordinary group of passionate people with an unusual capacity to feel a deep sense of generosity for the future. It is our hope that
history will look back on their sacrifice, commitment and creativity to recognize that these were the trimtabs of our time who navigated us to safer shores, calmer waters, a world that works for all.
On behalf of the Fuller Challenge staff, review team and our generous supporters we thank you for your interest in this project and hope you will enjoy this archive!
-Elizabeth Thompson, Founding Director
What We Do
For more than a century we have been saving wildlife and wild places, increasing people’s awareness and understanding of the natural world, and deepening people’s relationship with it.
We work on land and sea, from mountain tops to the seabed, from hidden valleys and coves to city streets. Wherever you are, Wildlife Trust people, places and projects are never far away, improving life for wildlife and people together, within communities of which we are a part.
We look after more than 2,300 nature reserves, covering 98,500 hectares, and operate more than 100 visitor and education centres in every part of the UK, on Alderney and the Isle of Man.
We work in partnership to have a bigger impact for wildlife. closely with schools, colleges and universities, with hundreds of farmers and landowners, fishermen and divers; with thousands of companies, big and small; with community groups and other environmental organisations; with lotteries, charitable trusts and foundations; with politicians from across the political spectrum; with local and national governments; and more.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
We are working to contribute towards creating an enabling environment for the effective advancement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Post 2015 Development Agenda. UNA Tanzania has been involved in MDGs Awareness for the past eight years and with the MDGs edging closer to expiration in 2015 (as well as MKUKUTA II and FYDP in Tanzania), this experience will help in contributing towards accelerating the achievement of the remaining milestones for Tanzania and taking stock of lessons in implementing the MDGs on how we can do better in the future through the expected SDGs as they are localized in our national development framework.
DEMOCRACY, GOOD GOVERNANCE & HUMAN RIGHTS
Under this area, we are working to promote positive civic and media engagement in the electoral process and advocate for the inclusion and visibility of human rights in the development process and new constitution for Tanzania. Throughout its existence, UNA Tanzania has endeavored to contribute towards strengthening democracy, good governance and human rights; and the establishment of the Tanzania Human Rights Commission, promoting press freedom, conducting national media monitoring in 2000 and 2005 elections as well as civic voter education in 2010 elections have been key program successes for the organization.
PEACE AND SECURITY
UNA Tanzania has been and continues to actively engage in the ICGLR (International Conference on the Great Lakes Regions) peace process. As such, this is a maintained program area where we aim to enhance youth and CSOs engagement in the process. Specifically, UNA Tanzania will be working towards establishment of the national Peace and Security Chapter for the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region peace process; increased representation of marginalized voices – youth, women and children – in the process, and enhanced representation on and intervention against Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
Sustainia is a sustainability advisory group and digital studio working to accelerate action towards a sustainable future. We work with people who are changing the world for the better, helping them integrate sustainability into their core by developing cutting-edge strategies, building engaging digital solutions, and amplifying their messages with impact.
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.5+ million members and supporters to defend everyone’s right to a healthy world.b
African Sustainable Energy Association represents and actively promotes Renewable Energy Solutions in the Africa. We focus on Wind, Solar, Biomass, Biogas, Bio Fuels, Green Products, Energy Saving, Alternative Energy, Energy from Waste, Fuel Cell Technologies etc.
The Global Environment Facility was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, the GEF has provided over $19.2 billion in grants and mobilized an additional $101.4 billion in co-financing for more than 4,700 projects in 170 countries. In addition, under the Small Grants Programme, the GEF has financed 23,991 projects in 128 countries.
The GEF Partnership recently agreed to a new direction in its work to achieve greater results and help to meet rising challenges. This agreement is set out in the Summary of the Negotiations of the Seventh Replenishment of the GEF. In combination with its traditional investments under the Conventions, the GEF is:
- Strategically focusing its investments to catalyze transformational change in key systems that are driving major environmental loss, in particular energy, cities and food;
- Prioritizing integrated projects and programs that address more than one global environmental problem at a time, building on the GEF’s unique position and mandate to act on a wide range of global environmental issues; and
- Implementing new strategies and policies to enhance results, including stronger engagement with the private sector, indigenous peoples, and civil society, and an increased focus on gender equality.
NOSDRA was established by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Act of 2006. It was established with responsibility for preparedness, detection, and response to oil spillages in Nigeria. Its Head office is at 5th floor NAIC House plot 590, zone AO, Central Business District, Abuja. With its zonal offices in Lagos, Akure, Porth-court, Warri, Kaduna, Uyo, Kogi, Gombe and Bayelsa.
The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) was established in 2006 as an institutional framework to co-ordinate the implementation of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) for Nigeria in accordance with the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC 90) to which Nigeria is a signatory. Since its establishment, the Agency has been intensely occupied with ensuring compliance with environment legislation in the Nigerian Petroleum Sector.
The Agency embarks on Joint Investigation Visits, ensures the remediation of impacted sites and monitors oil spill drill exercises and facilities inspection.
It has set up Zonal Offices in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Uyo all in the Niger-Delta region where much of oil exploration and production in Nigeria is carried out and there are also zonal offices in Lagos, Kaduna, Kogi, Gombe and Akure. NOSDRA is currently liaising with relevant stakeholders in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry to evolve practical methods of environmental management to cope with the dynamics of the Petroleum Sector.