Equator Initiative:
A partnership for sustainable communities in the tropics

The Equator Initiative is a partnership that brings together the United Nations, civil society, business, governments and local groups to help build the capacity and raise the profile of grassroots efforts that promote sustainable communities in developing countries within the equatorial belt.

A simple fact lies at the heart of the Equator Initiative’s work: the world’s greatest concentration of biological wealth is found in the tropics, in countries often beset by acute poverty. This biological wealth is under threat as never before.

The good news is that local grassroots and indigenous communities are actively charting a path towards a more sustainable future, using their biological resources in creative and sustainable ways for food, medicine, shelter and improved livelihoods.

The Equator Initiative aims to champion and support community-level development projects that link economic improvement with the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. To this end, the Equator Initiative focuses on four action areas:

• Equator Prize The Equator Initiative awards this biennial prize to recognize outstanding communities from developing countries in the tropics that demonstrate in practical terms how efforts to conserve biodiversity can also reduce poverty
  
• Equator Knowledge The Equator Initiative leads knowledge management activities at the nexus of biodiversity and poverty issues, ranging from collaborative research with academic partners, broad documentation of lessons learned, collation of best practices in an online database, and global public awareness raising.
  
• Equator Dialogues The Equator Initiative creates a platform for local voices that celebrates the success of community action in achieving the MDGs. Through community dialogue spaces and special dialogue events, the Equator Initiative draws critical attention to local development and conservation successes while fostering peer-to-peer exchange and facilitating direct access to decision makers and policy processes.
  
• Equator Ventures The Equator Initiative and Conservation International, through Equator Ventures, unleash and foster local conservation enterprises and demonstrate that small and medium sized biodiversity businesses aren’t only good investments, but are also a driving force for ecologically sound and more equitable development.

The Equator Initiative Brochure (PDF file)

The Equator Initiative Brochure (Text file)