In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Highnesses, Excellencies, Guests of Honor, Ladies and gentlemen …

Welcome and thank you for sharing with us the joy of this important event. Special welcome in the UAE to our guests of honor who came from other countries to join us tonight in this Inaugural Ceremony of the Largest Environmental Prize in the world. Thanks to Allah who wanted for this Prize to be in the United Arab Emirates for the sake of all Earth.

First, allow me to express, on behalf of all of you, our sincere gratitude and appreciation to the father of this land and dedicated environmentalist, His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates. May Allah shed his blessings on this leader who loved his people and loved nature and reward him for what he did for his people and for all life on earth.

Here in the UAE, we are racing time and working hard to ensure dignified life for the future generations. Hence, the integrity of the environment is a top priority in our development plans. As you all know, there are so many threats to the environment on earth, but I would like to focus on the issue of Environmental Security which has become a major concern of leaders and planners all over the world. Poverty, Intra- and Inter-country conflicts, political instability and mass migrations of people and animals in the developing countries are causing serious deterioration of natural resources and spread of infectious diseases among people and animals. This in turn leads to overwhelming ecological and socio-economic imbalance, which kick off the basis of life support systems on our fragile earth.

On the other hand, we find that the industrialized and technologically developed countries are releasing enormous amounts of green house gases and chloro-flouro carbons and accumulating enormous amounts of hazardous waste without exerting much effort to avoid their serious impact. They are also racing each other in developing new biotechnology and new chemical, biological and radioactive weapons, while scientific evidence indicate that a small percentage of the armament cost is enough to solve most environment and development problems, especially if we can spread peace.

Under the guidance of our father and leader, H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who relentlessly pursued peace and worked hard for the conservation of the environment and human heritage, and from this peaceful country, we call upon both people and governments all over the world to stop fighting, come closer to each other, and curb exploitation and hegemony in order to realize peace and environmental security for better life and more sustainable development for all. We would like to assure you that the United Arab Emirates will not spare any time or effort in cooperating with others to realize these urgent human needs.

As regards the Zayed Prize, we believe that the first cycle has been very successful and full of achievements. Thanks to Allah and to the team who joined hands with supporting institutions and many sponsors to do a great job. The United Nations Environment Program, the United Nations Development Program and the National Institutions represented in the Higher Committee were the main supporters of this effort.

The first cycle closed so nicely as the winners are recognized worldwide for their impact on global environmental policy. President Carter is known to all of us, he envisioned the impact of globalization on the developing countries and committed vast resources when he was president of the United States and through the Carter center afterwards to alleviate the devastating effects of poverty, conflicts and disease on environment and development. For that he merited the First Prize.

Scientific research is the key to appropriate planning and sustainable development; hence, the Second Prize was awarded to Professor Mohammed El Kassas and the World Commission on Dams for their outstanding results and impact, especially on arid lands, water resource and bio-diversity.

We also believe that NGOs, CBOs and other Civil Society Organisations play a key role in spreading awareness and resisting environmental malpractice. They are real partners of governments and International Organisations. Accordingly, the third Prize was divided between two outstanding international figures. Ms. Yolanda Kakabadse is the president of the IUCN and a founder of the “Futuro Latino Americano” organisation. Her achievements are known to those who attended the “Earth Summit” at Rio de Janero in 1992 where she headed the NGOs forum. Mr. Stephan Schmidheiny played a key role in getting the big multinational companies to introduce environmental management into business at a time when environmental awareness was poor among the business community.

Congratulations to the winners. I hope that this will be an incentive for more fruitful work. I also hope that the winners of this cycle will send a clear message to the whole world that the Zayed Prize will be awarded to this caliber of winners only.

I would like to express my gratitude to the chairman and members of the International Jury, the Technical Advisory Committee for their efforts and support. Thanks also to the United nations Environment Program, the United Nations Development Program, the chairman and members of the Higher Committee, and the General Secretariat for working really hard to make this inaugural cycle a great success.

Once again I would like to welcome you all and thank you for being with us tonight in this historical event. I hope that we all work hard for a better environment for our children and grandchildren.