The Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, and Conservation International, have presented today in Barcelona the awards of the “Biodiversity Reporting Award” in its 2008 edition. The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Ana Leiva, the vice-president of Marketing and Communication of Conservation International, Lara Bowling and the Indian economist and director of the Deutsche Bank, Pavan Sukhdev, participated in this awards ceremony that was held within the framework of the IUCN World Conservation Congress.

The awards of the “Latin American Prize for Reporting on Biodiversity 2008” have gone to the Bolivian journalist Miriam Telma Jemio Flores for the report “Bats: three thousand are hunted every two months” published in the Domingo Magazine of La Prensa, and to the Peruvian journalist Ramiro Escobar, for his report “Selva Negra”, published in the Somos Magazine of the newspaper El Comercio.

The Biodiversity Foundation and the environmental organization Conservation International organize this contest that aims to promote environmental journalism in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, encourage the production of environmental reports and recognize the professional excellence of those who cover environmental issues in these countries.

The journalists who were nominated for the 2008 Latin American Biodiversity Reporting Award are the winning journalists of the First Prize for Biodiversity Reporting in the Spanish-speaking countries where this contest is held: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

This year the contestants are: the Bolivian Miriam Telma Jemio Flores, with the report “Bats: three thousand are hunted every two months”, published in the Domingo Magazine (La Prensa); the Colombian Carlos Fernando Gaitán, with the report “Companies, Community and Environment”, published in the Dinero Magazine; the Ecuadorian Leisa Sánchez, with the report “It is not enough to be the breadbasket of the world”, published in the Revista Gestión; the Mexican Georgina Portas, with the report “Adiós Species”, published in the magazine Quo México; the Peruvian Ramiro Escobar La Cruz, with the report “Selva Negra”, published in the Somos Magazine (El Comercio newspaper); and the Venezuelan Carolina Conde, with the report “Crisis of the Guatopo Park threatens to leave Greater Caracas without water”, published in the newspaper El Nacional.

The “Biodiversity Reporting Award”, created by Conservation International in 1999 with the support of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ), has established itself as an important tool to promote issues related to the protection of biodiversity and the environment.