Zee Media Bureau

Washington: Indian scientist and ecologist Kamal Bawa has won the prestigious Midori Prize in Biodiversity 2014 for his research that included climate change in the Himalayas.

Bawa will receive the prize with a cash award of USD 100,000 in October during the Conference of Parties (COP-12) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Currently, India is chairing the COP-11, but will pass the baton to Korea at the COP-12 in South Korea, according to a media release from ATREE. The theme of this year's COP-12 meeting is 'Biodiversity for Sustainable Development'.

The Midori Prize for Biodiversity was founded by the AEON Environmental Foundation, Japan in 2010. The prize honours three individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at global, regional or local levels.

The announcement of the prize was made on Monday at the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat in Montreal, and at the AEON Environmental Foundation in Japan.

Bawa is also the founder president of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Bangalore.

Bawa, who has taught at the University of Massachusetts for more than 40 years, had also received international recognition as the recipient of the first Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science, a major international prize, in 2012.

(With Agency Inputs)