The Global 500 Roll of Honour was an award given from 1987 to 2003 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award recognized the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world. A successor system of UNEP awards called Champions of the Earth started in 2005.
Since the inception of the award in 1987, over 719 individuals and organizations, in both the adult and youth categories, have been honoured with the Global 500 award. Among prominent winners are:
| Name | Year | Category Adult/Youth | Organization/ Individual | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Redford [21] | 1987 | Adult | Individual | US |
| National Geographic Society [22] [11] | 1987 | Adult | Organization | US |
| Soichiro Honda [23] | 1987 | Adult | Individual (Deceased) | Japan |
| Green Belt Movement, [24] Womenaid International | 1987 | Adult | Organization | United Kingdom |
| Greenpeace International [22] | 1988 | Adult | Organization | Netherlands |
| Jimmy Carter [5] | 1988 | Adult | Individual | US |
| Calestous Juma [25] | 1993 | Adult | Individual | US |
| Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh [26] | 1994 | Adult | Individual | United Kingdom |
| Paul Josef Crutzen [28] | 1996 | Adult | Individual | Germany |
| BBC World Service Education Department [29] | 1997 | Adult | Organization | United Kingdom |
| Jane Goodall [8] | 1997 | Adult | Individual | India / US |
| The Nation (Thailand) [30] | 1997 | Adult | Organization | Thailand |
| Sylvia Earle [31] | 1998 | Adult | Individual | US |
| Greening Australia [32] | 1998 | Adult | Organization | Australia |
| Feodor Konyukhov | 1998 | Adult | Individual | Russia |
| Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov [33] | 1998 | Adult | Individual | Russia |
| Don Merton [34] | 1998 | Adult | Individual (Deceased) | New Zealand |
| Verna Simpson [35] | 1999 | Adult | Individual | Australia |
| Toyota Motor Club [22] | 1999 | Adult | Organization | Japan |
| C. P. Krishnan Nair [36] | 1999 | Adult | Individual | India |
| Fuji Xerox Australia [37] | 2000 | Adult | Organization | Australia |
| Conservation Volunteers Australia [38] | 2000 | Youth | Organization | Australia |
| Nantawarrina, the first Indigenous Protected Area in the world [39] [40] | 2000 | Adult | Organization | Australia |
| Laurel Springs School [41] | 1990 | Adult | Organization | US |
| Paul Winter | 1987 | Adult | Individual | US |
| Anil Agarwal [1] | 1987 | Adult | Individual (Deceased) | India |
| Daphne Sheldrick [42] | 1992 | Adult | Individual (Deceased) | United Kingdom |
| Haller Park [43] [44] | Adult | Organization | Mombasa | |
| Environmental Investigation Agency [45] | 2017 | Adult | Organization | United States / United Kingdom |
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972. Its mandate is to provide leadership, deliver science and develop solutions on a wide range of issues, including climate change, the management of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and green economic development. The organization also develops international environmental agreements; publishes and promotes environmental science and helps national governments achieve environmental targets.
The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, and is presented annually in early December. An international jury, invited by the five regular Right Livelihood Award board members, decides the awards in such fields as environmental protection, human rights, sustainable development, health, education, and peace. The prize money is shared among the winners, usually numbering four, and is €200,000. Very often one of the four laureates receives an honorary award, which means that the other three share the prize money.
Wangarĩ Muta Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki is a Canadian environmental activist and writer. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind and take individual responsibility. She is the daughter of Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki.
Kantilal Jivan Shah (1922–2010), also known as Kanti, was a Seychellois conservationist. He has been described as a guru, historian, natural history expert, palmist, vegetarian cook and teacher, photographer, artist and sculptor, agronomist and intellectual.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established Champions of the Earth in 2005 as an annual awards programme to recognize outstanding environmental leaders from the public and private sectors, and from civil society.
Ndyakira Ntamuhiira Amooti was a Ugandan children's writer, journalist and environmentalist, awarded the Global 500 Roll of Honour and winner of the Goldman Environment Prize.
The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, or BELA (বেলা), is a nonprofit legal organization established in 1992 to assist efforts to protect the environment. In 2003, it was placed on the 'Global 500 Roll of Honour' of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). BELA was awarded the prestigious "Poribesh Puroshkar", or 'Environmental Prize', of the Bangladeshi government in 2007 and the joint winner of the Tang Prize in Rule of Law in 2020.
An environmental award is usually awarded for activities that lead to the protection of the environment. The awards may be open to the global community or only within a particular country or field of work.
Pavan Sukhdev is an Indian environmental economist whose field of studies include green economy and international finance. He was the Special Adviser and Head of UNEP's Green Economy Initiative, a major UN project suite to demonstrate that greening of economies is not a burden on growth but rather a new engine for growing wealth, increasing decent employment, and reducing persistent poverty. Pavan was also the Study Leader for the ground breaking TEEB study commissioned by G8+5 and hosted by UNEP. Under his leadership, TEEB sized the global problem of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation in economic and human welfare terms, and proposed solutions targeted at policy-makers, administrators, businesses and citizens. TEEB presented its widely acclaimed Final Report suite at the UN meeting by Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan.
Stephen Oliver Andersen is the Director of Research at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) and former co-chair (1989–2012) of the Montreal Protocol Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) where he also chaired and co-chaired Technical Options Committees, Task Forces and Special Reports. He is one of the founders and leading figures in the success of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer that has phased out the chemicals that deplete the stratospheric ozone that protects the Earth against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation that causes skin cancer, cataracts, and suppression of the human immune system, destroys agricultural crops and natural ecosystems and deteriorates the built environment. Because ozone-depleting chemicals are also powerful greenhouse gases the Montreal Protocol also protected climate. Dr. Andersen was instrumental in the 2016 Kigali Amendment that will phase down hydrofluorocarbons once necessary to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) fast enough to avoid ozone tipping points, but no longer necessary now that environmentally superior replacements are available or soon to be available. For his ambitious campaign saving the ozone layer, Dr. Andersen earned the 2021 Future of Life Award along with Joe Farman and Susan Solomon.
Idelisa Bonnelly de Calventi was a Dominican marine biologist who is considered the "mother of marine conservation in the Caribbean". She was the founder of the study of biology in the Dominican Republic, as well as the founder of the Institute of Marine Biology and the Dominican Foundation for Marine Research. She was instrumental in the creation of the first Humpback Whale Sanctuary of the North Atlantic and has won numerous awards, including induction into the UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour, UNESCO's Marie Curie Medal and the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella. The BBC has called her one of the most important women scientists in Latin America.
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Bruno Messerli was a Swiss geographer and university professor who focused on high mountains and highland-lowland linkages. He was appointed Full Professor of Geomorphology in 1968 by the University of Bern, where he taught and carried out research until his retirement in 1996. He contributed significantly to the inclusion of a mountain agenda, Chapter 13 — Managing Fragile Ecosystems — Sustainable Mountain Development in Agenda 21, the official action plan of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the Rio Summit, the Rio Conference, and the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June in 1992.
The Global Undergraduate Awards is an academic awards program recognising undergraduate work. Prizes are awarded to 25 disciplines by a non-profit organisation under the patronage of the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.
Andrew Augustus Simmons is an environmental activist from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He was awarded the 1989 United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Roll of Honour and the 1994 Goldman Environmental Prize.
Wanjira Mathai is a Kenyan environmentalist and activist. She is Vice President and Regional Director for Africa at the World Resources Institute, based in Nairobi, Kenya. In this role, she takes on global issues including deforestation and energy access. She was selected as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans by New African magazine in 2018 for her role serving as the senior advisor at the World Resources Institute, as well as for her campaign to plant more than 30 million trees through her work at the Green Belt Movement.
Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti is a Kenyan environment and climate activist and founder of the Green Generation Initiative, which nurtures young people to love nature and be environmentally conscious at a young age and has now planted 30,000 tree seedlings in Kenya.
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