Nigeria’s local food wrap wins UNDP award

A project that promotes the production of leaf to wrap local foods has emerged winner of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Equator Prize.

Aimed at reducing the growing trend of using plastic materials, the project by Environmental Management and Development Trust (EMADET) was announced among 22 outstanding local community and indigenous peoples’ initiatives that advance innovative nature-based development solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The winners will join a prestigious network of 223 communities from 78 countries that had received the prize since its inception in 2002. Each Equator Prize winner gets richer by $10,000 and support to participate in a series of policy dialogues and special events during the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week in New York, this September.

The Equator Prize 2019 Award Ceremony coincides with the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit and the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

An independent technical advisory committee of experts selected this year’s winners from a pool of 847 nominations across 127 countries. The four-stage selection process emphasised community-based approaches that provide a blueprint for replication and scaling solutions to address the climate crisis.

EMADET’s initiative focuses on integrated cocoa agroforestry and intensification of planting of under-storey useful plants such as Thaumatococcus danielli (Eweeran in Yoruba), particularly in degrading forest habitats.