Green Inspiration

For Denica Riadini-Flesch - the new Laureate of the Rolex Awards for Initiative 2023 - if the aim is to solve a complex environmental, social and gender problem, it is necessary to look to the past.

Inza Koné, a Rolex Awards 2023 Initiative Laureate, is leading the conservation of the Tanoé-Ehy forest in Côte d'Ivoire, protecting its rich biodiversity and some of West Africa's most endangered species through a scientific and community-based approach.

Constantino Aucca Chutas, Beth Koigi, Inza Koné, Liu Shaochuang and Denica Riadini-Flesch: five pioneers of entrepreneurial spirit.

National Geographic explorers Angelo Bernardino and Margaret Owuor embarked on a challenging mission through the coastal forests of the Amazon.

Alison Criscitiello, ice core specialist, mountaineer and explorer, leads the study of ice cores, whose layers preserve 30,000 years of our planet's climate history.

Biologist Pablo García Borboroglu has dedicated more than three decades to better understand the penguins of Argentine Patagonia (and, little by little, those of the rest of the world) in order to save them from the threats that threaten them.

Swiss ornithologist Anita Studer decided that if she wanted to study an endangered bird, she first had to save the forest from deforestation and monoculture. Once the habitat was restored, the blackbird population would grow and she could devote herself to studying them. It's not the short way, but it certainly started a virtuous circle.

Canadian molecular biologist Miranda Wang has created a chemical process to break down the most harmful and polluting plastic waste and transform it into high-performance materials.

Brazilian biologist João Campos-Silva has launched an environmental management project in which community participation is key.

Marine biologist Ginevra Boldrocchi coordinates the monthly research work "in the Caprera Canyon region, an underwater valley whose depths are teeming with cetacean life and other species that urgently need to be protected.

Peruvian biologist Kerstin Forsberg realized that she could not focus on protecting a species if she did not address the needs of the surrounding community.

After nearly 25 years of protection strategies in the Galapagos, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and her team have returned to the archipelago to take the pulse of these ecosystems. The results, in principle positive, could be a new model for conserving our planet's oceans.