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Recognizing and celebrating conservation performance through sustainable use, the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) is happy to announce the "Markhor Award" 2012. This excellent award recognizes the forefront of conservationists, who are solving challenges in the field of conservation of biodiversity through sustainable hunting by using innovative and sustainable practices or creative partnerships. The award will be presented at the 11th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad India, in October 2012.
The name “Markhor” comes from Pakistan’s threatened mountain goat species, which population numbers have been multiplied 25 times in recent years through sustainable hunting tourism. Hunting income benefits the local people and arouses their interest in conserving wildlife.
The “Markhor Award” recognizes and celebrates outstanding conservation performance by personalities, private and government institutions, enterprises or conservation projects that link the conservation of biodiversity and human livelihoods through the application of the principles of sustainable use, in particular hunting, as part of wildlife and ecosystem management. The award is presented biennially at the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD CoP).
The price was awarded for the first time at the occasion of the CBD CoP 9 in Bonn in 2008 to the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique – which is the largest conservation area in the country, funded through sustainable hunting tourism – and to the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor which links the Niassa Reserve with Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve.
For the second time, in 2010, the award ceremony took place during the CBD CoP 10 in Nagoya, Japan. The winner was the Torghar Conservation Program (TCP) of the Society for Torghar Environmental Protection (STEP) in Pakistan.
The CIC is looking for excellent candidates for the next Markhor Award which will be handed over at the 11th Conference of Parties of the CBD in Hyderabad, India in October 2012 where the CIC and its partners will organize a prominent high-level event to celebrate the award. The nominations should be presented to CIC latest by the end of March 2012.
| Award Selection Criteria |
