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Governments of Norway and the United States of America join the Seed Initiative

GLAND, September 7th 2004 - The governments of the United States of America and Norway have joined the Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (Seed) Initiative.

The Seed Initiative, led by IUCN-The World Conservation Union, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, encourages community level partnership action in support of the internationally agreed development goals, including those the contained in the Millennium Declaration and outcomes from the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Seed has three objectives. The first is to recognize innovative nascent partnerships that promise to implement these international goals through a biennial award programme. The second is to provide individually-targeted support services to selected Seed honorees, helping them to establish their new partnerships and to showcase emerging partnerships on the web (www.seedinit.org). The third is to capture lessons-learned and create best practice resources. These resources will include a wide variety of support information for other entrepreneurs active in development partnerships.

"Partnerships, such as Seed, are vital to helping local communities improve the quality of their citizens' lives and can make an important contribution to the world community's efforts to achieve development goals," stated Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky.

Highlighting the value of partnership approaches, Mr. Knut Aerild Hareide, Norwegian Minister of Environment, said: "Working together is a simple idea. But the dividends from working in partnership grow exponentially. We believe that the Seed Initiative will not only benefit partners, but will also make a contribution towards sustainable development locally, nationally and internationally."

IUCN Director General Achim Steiner welcomed U.S. and Norwegian support for Seed, saying that "it comes as recognition of the value of the initiative's unique approach and an encouragement to all entrepreneurs for sustainable development worldwide."

The Seed Initiative's next milestone occurs in October, when 10 finalists for the biennial awards will be announced. Then, in November at the 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress in Bangkok Seed finalists will participate in workshops and gain insights on how to implement their initiatives, benefiting from existing partnership examples such as those of UNDP's Equator Initiative. Seed will announce its top five inaugural award winners at the next session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in April 2005.

Note to journalists: For more information, please contact Darian Stibbe of the Seed Secretariat at info@seedinit.org or +44 1865 202 669. For more information on the initiative, see: www.seedinit.org