Filipina wins FAO forest champions award in Italy

From left to right: Ms. Louise Mabulo, founder of The Cacao Project and Culinary Lounge; Philippine Ambassador to Italy and Permanent Representative to Rome-based UN Agencies Neal Imperial; Mrs. Nida Collado, 2024 Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award winner; Ms. Femy Pinto, Executive Director of Non-Timber Forest Products-Exchange Programme – Asia; and Deputy Permanent Representative to Rome-based UN Agencies and Agriculture Attaché Dr. Josyline C. Javelosa. (Photo from Macatumbalen Community Based Forest and Management Association/FACEBOOK)

MANILA, Philippines — Filipina community leader Nida Collado has won the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) 2024 Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award for her work in forest conservation and restoration in the Philippines.

The FAO-chaired Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) presented the award during the 27th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO) in Rome, Italy on July 22.

Collado, the president of the Macatumbalen Community-Based Forest and Coastal Management Association in San Vicente, Palawan, had been championing environment protection within the community since 2002.

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By 2009, she had mobilized projects from both government and non-government organizations, further encouraging community participation.

“From the few believers we had when we started, to being heard at the national level, and now standing here on the global stage, this journey has been incredibly meaningful for me and those who believed in and supported me,” Collado said.

“Winning the Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award proves that our efforts are worth cultivating and expanding.”

To date, her group has reforested 1,450 hectares of denuded land and protected 400 hectares of the remaining forests and community water source in San Vincente.

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The FAO also cited her work in educating farmers on the harms of slash-and-burn farming and the founding of six women’s groups, two youth associations, and one men’s association to promote collective responsibility in forest and mangrove protection.

“Nida innovatively championed a technique to restore denuded mangroves. Reforested mangrove pockets, which are picked by individual villages, create interconnected pockets managed by village communities,” the FAO said.

“This innovation forms a fisher-friendly pathway through the mangrove forest, blending traditional wisdom with modern conservation practices. Her dedication not only restored large tracts of forest but also empowered her community to sustainably manage and benefit from their natural resources, highlighting the far-reaching impact of community-led environmental management.”

The Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award is an honor granted to individuals who have made extraordinary efforts to improve the world’s forests and the lives of people who depend on them.

This year, 578 nominations were submitted, the highest number of candidates in the history of the award.

The candidates were evaluated based on four main criteria: overall impact, innovative aspects of the work, empowerment of others, and transferability and scale.

“Mrs. Collado’s passion and innovative thinking have created lasting and positive change in forest management and restoration of mangroves – she is an inspiration for all of us,” FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said.

Brazil’s permanent representative to the FAO, Ambassador Carla Barroso Carneiro, said many candidates deeply impressed them but Collado’s extraordinary efforts towards sustainable forest management in San Vicente “left an indelible mark in her community, which made the jury unanimously agree to grant her the award.”

Philippine Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UN Rome-based Agencies Neal Imperial said, “I am proud that a Filipina prime mover of sustainable forest management in the Philippines has been recognized by the FAO. She is now a global inspiration for the protection and preservation of our remaining forest for the benefit of the present and future generations.”

Aside from being invited to attend the international award recognition ceremony, the winner also received a cash prize of USD20,000.

The previous Wangari Maathai Forest Champion Award winners are Nepalese community forestry movement leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha (2012), Mexican environmental campaigner Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo (2014), Ugandan forestry activist Gertrude Kabusimbi Kenyangi (2015), Brazilian forestry activist Maria Margarida Ribeiro da Silva (2017), Burundian forestry activist Léonidas Nzigiyimpa (2019), and Cameroonian activist and social forester Cécile Ndjebet (2022).