Lush Spring Prize winners 2019

Intentional:

Four £10,000 prizes were awarded to newly formed groups and organisations to help establish a strong foundation from which to grow.

This year’s winners included Ripanu – a community that aspires to use ecological tourism as a strategy for halting oil drilling on the Sapara lands in Ecuador.

The Sapara people are an indigenous ethnolinguistic Amazonian group at risk of disappearing over recent decades, despite the fact that UNESCO proclaimed their ‘orality and cultural manifestations as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity’.

Ripanu aims to defend the ancestral lands of the Sapara people from the oil industry and regenerate the ancestral Sapara culture.

Young: 

Three £20,000 prizes were awarded to young initiatives that are seeking funding to evolve and grow.

This includes Sfruttazero – an enterprise in southern Italy that shows that another kind of work is possible – work that respects nature and promotes human and workers’ rights in the local community.

Established:

INSO in Mexico and Guba in Eswatini were awarded £25,000 each in the Established category; both demonstrating successful and inspirational work over more than 5 years.

INSO support communities with regenerative social and ecological initiatives in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Its flagship ‘Slow Water’ project aims to address the Central Valley’s watershed crisis, where the speed with which water flows impacts on both its communities and its ecosystems.

Influence:

ECOLISE and ZIMSOFF received this year’s Influence awards of £25,000. These two prizes are aimed at supporting those who are changing the context in which we are all working; helping to build and strengthen the regenerative movement.

Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF) is farmer-owned and farmer-led and envisions improved livelihoods of organised and empowered smallholder farmers practising sustainable and viable ecological agriculture.

It is campaigning to influence policies and public awareness towards agroecology and smallholder farmers’ rights on access to healthy soils, clean water and seed.