5.20.2003 ET

(CSRwire) LONDON - A project to bring much-needed energy to remote Himalayan villages in India using an army of 'barefoot engineers', has won the 2003 St Andrews Prize for the Environment.

The programme trains illiterate and semi-illiterate people, many of them society drop-outs, to install and maintain solar power equipment, transforming the standard of living and independence of their communities, and drastically reducing their use of environmentally harmful fuels.

Bunker Roy, founder and head of the Barefoot College of Rajasthan, who was presented with the award at the University of St Andrews, said today that the $30,000 prize money would go towards starting up the first 'barefoot college' for women.

Sir Crispin Tickell, former convenor of the Government's panel on sustainable development, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, said:

'The primary objective of the St Andrews Prize is to recognise practical and original solutions to environmental problems. The winner this year has tackled one of the greatest of such problems: the generation of energy by sustainable and non-polluting means. The solar electricification of a Himalayan village may seem mostly of local significance: but it is capable of almost universal application, with lessons for us all.'

Bunker Roy, who has lived and worked amongst the mountain communities for nearly 40 years, said:

'The timing of this award couldn't be better. We're planning to build the first barefoot solar college for training village women in Ladakh. The government has already granted the land for the new college, and this will enable us to make a start, and give our project the credibility to seek additional funds.'

The St Andrews Prize for the Environment, which is now in its fifth year, is a joint initiative of the University of St Andrews, a world leader in environmental studies, and ConocoPhillips, a major integrated energy company active in more than 40 countries.

Two runners-up for this year's prize each received $5,000. The first was a Cambodian-based team led by a Briton, Dr Jenny Daltry. Their proposal was to rejuvenate an ancient Highland Khmer community struck low after 30 years of war. It will conserve their traditional way of life and, at the same time, protect one of the most important areas of biodiversity conservation in Asia by providing a natural habitat for wildlife like the Indochinese tiger and the critically endangered Siamese crocodile.

The second was a project led by Professor Ricardo Radulovich-Ramirez from Costa Rica. To counter diminishing availability of fresh water, good land and fishing stocks, he has developed a food development system that floats on the sea. Distillation chambers would convert seawater to freshwater, enabling organic crop production above the water and sea farming for fish, lobsters and other products under the water.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The St Andrews Prize for the Environment is now in its fifth year, and provides seed-money for good environmental ideas. The St Andrews Prize for the Environment network is also available for winners to provide other connections and support.

2. The St Andrews Prize board of trustees, chaired by Sir Crispin Tickell, comprises: Baroness Susan Greenfield, Prof. Sir John Krebs, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Sara Parkin, Dr Alun Anderson, James Currie, Archie W. Dunham, Roger Ramshaw, Keith Henry, The Rt. Hon. Lord Jenkin of Roding, Richard Sandbrook, Dr Brian Lang, Sir Neil Chalmers, Professor Howard Dalton, and Jonathan Startup.

3. Previous winners include (in 2002) a team from the Philippines with a project to educate rice-farmers in Vietnam to stop spraying harmful and unnecessary pesticides; (in 2001) a project to make local communities around Lake Victoria in Kenya aware through traditional song, dance and drama of the environmental hazards that are threatening it; (in 2000) two Palestinian academics who proposed to turn the waste of olive oil production into valuable by-products; and (in 1999) a South African project to reverse the environmental degradation caused by early mining development.

4. A wide variety of excellent colour images of the winning project and the winner receiving his medal are available from Colman Getty PR on 0131 477 7950 or email rebecca@colmangettypr.co.uk

5. Bunker Roy and the two runners-up are available for interview in the UK for a limited time.

6. Full details of the prize guidelines are on the prize website at www.thestandrewsprize.com

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