Skip to main content

Practical Action nominated for Earthshot Prize 2023

By Practical Action On 14.03.2023 Climate changePress release

Practical Action is delighted to announce our work has been nominated for a prestigious international prize highlighting the most scalable, impactive solutions to climate change.

The Centre for Global Eco-Innovation Centre at Lancaster University put forward our work introducing sustainable farming techniques in Africa, Latin America and Asia for the Protect and Restore Nature Earthshot Prize this year.

Prof Jess Davies (Director of The Centre for Global Eco-Innovation, Lancaster University) said, “We really value being a part of the Earthshot prize as it’s incredibly inspiring each year to hear of so many exciting eco-innovations being developed and implemented across the planet.

Amongst the many excellent ideas that we received, a few stood out to us this year as being exciting initiatives already finding impact, with people, diversity and local communities at their centre. This aligns with our ethos of place-based innovation at the Centre for Global Eco-innovation as well as with the Earthshot prize. We’re thrilled to champion these initiatives and wish them well on their next steps.”

Practical Action has examples of introducing regenerative agricultural practices, and linking farmers who employ them up with local markets, so they can increase their income, whilst improving soil quality, maintaining the land and improving biodiversity.

Earthshot Image

The prize awards 5 winning solutions £1m to help take ingenious work to scale, so that they can create the change that will help adapt and repair the planet to better cope with climate change.

Akinyi Walender, Africa Director at Practical Action said: “We’re thrilled to be one of only 1,000 organizations selected from around the world.

“As we all know, soil degradation is a serious problem, with one-third of the world’s soil being moderate to severely degraded. This greatly impacts farmers’ incomes, food production, and rural economies.

“In Kenya alone, more than 48 per cent of the land is agricultural, but many young people and men are leaving rural communities in search of white-collar jobs in cities. This has a profound effect on food production.

“We are working to reverse this trend, revive traditional farming practices that improve soil fertility, increase incomes and build a thriving rural economy in Kenya and beyond.”

Practical Action’s nomination will now undergo a detailed assessment across multiple stages.

After a rigorous process, the Earthshot Prize team will select 15 solutions as finalists – three for each category of Earthshot.

Finally, five winners will be selected by The Earthshot Prize Council and announced at their next Awards Ceremony in December, where they will receive a one-of-a-kind award and a £1m grant to scale the impact of their winning solution.

Work like this depends on your support
DONATE