Top Environment Award for Ecosystem Assessment

The 2005 Zayed International Prize for the Environment, awarded for 'scientific and or technological achievement in environment' went to 1,300 biodiversity experts from 95 countries for their work on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), whose final report was completed earlier this year. The award was set up in 1999 by the crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in memory of the environmental commitments of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The international jury that awarded the prizes described the MEA as a "landmark study on the condition of the world's ecosystem services from fisheries and freshwaters up to the carbon capture of the world’s forests". The prizes will be presented in Dubai on 6 February 2006.