An American biologist/oceanographer who has ”made it his life’s work to promote a coordinated and sustainable administration of marine resources and marine environments”, and a Costa Rican environmentalist who has successfully fought shark finning are sharing this year’s one million kronor (€105,000) Göteborg Award for Sustainable Development.
Dr. Ken Sherman and Randall Arauz, chairman of the environmental organization PRETOMA (program for the restoration of sea turtles) in Costa Rica, will receive the prize at a ceremony on 17 November in Gothenburg. Earlier laureates during the award’s eleven-year history included former US Vice President Al Gore, EU ex-Commissioner Margot Wallström and Norway’s former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
“The incredible, irresistible, irremissibly oil stricken and immensely overfished oceans have rarely been more in focus. This year’s award winners have made heroic contributions by working relentlessly and systematically to create international holistic solutions and building up grassroots opinion into a power to reckon with,” said Professor John Holmberg, the jury chairman, in s press statement.
Working “tirelessly for decades”, Dr. Sherman has developed the concept of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs), which creates natural administrative units that take into consideration socioeconomic factors and ecological limitations, the press release explained, adding that “Ken Sherman’s LME model is exceptional because it’s built on a holistic view with a system perspective, which opens the door to the cooperation over function and country borders that is necessary”. Today the LME concept is generally accepted around the world and has a global network of 64 LME areas
Randall Arauz, on his part, has successfully raised public awareness of the brutality of shark finning both in Costa Rica and internationally. In his home country he has been able to get legislation installed that bans the practice.
“Randall Arauz’s work is a shining example of how a grassroots initiative to save biological diversity and create a more sustainable fishing industry can get results. He inspires us by showing us what a single human being can achieve”, the announcement said.