University of California, Berkeley
College of Natural Resources, Center for Sustainable Resource Development
The Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) at the University of California, Berkeley, offers a unique learning opportunity for mid-career practitioners and decision-makers to broaden their knowledge and perspectives on environmental and natural resource science, policy, management, and leadership. Through exposure to innovative sustainability approaches and dialogue, ELP participants develop the tools and skills necessary to meet environmental goals that also reduce poverty and social conflict. Established in August 2000 with seed funding from UC Berkeley alumni Carolyn and Richard Beahrs, the ELP offers an annual three week summer certificate course at UC Berkeley, and coordinates the Berkeley ELP Alumni Network with nearly 400 members from over 90 countries. The ELP also supports post-training conservation and sustainable development collaborative projects with alumni, their organizations and the UC Berkeley community of faculty, staff, and students.
In March, 2012 two ELP alumni, Kim Kieser (ELP 2009) and Bishnu Thakali (ELP 2011), received prestigious environmental awards. They were recognized for the work that the organizations they both founded and direct are doing within their countries.
Bishnu Thakali’s (Nepal) organization, Women’s Environment Preservation Committee (WEPCO), received the SEED Gender Equality Award 2011. The annual international SEED Awards, which are part of the SEED Initiative, “recognize inspiring social and environmental entrepreneurs whose grassroots businesses in developing countries can help to meet sustainable development challenges” (press release, http://www.seedinit.org/).
Kim Kieser’s (South Africa, ELP 2009) Foundation, SOUL Foundation (Save Our Universal Land), was recently awarded a Climate Change Leadership Award for its WET-Africa Model for a Sustainable Green Economy. Soul Foundation, with its integrated waste management systems and river restoration programmes, “a project exemplary in linking directly to climate change”, was awarded second in the waste minimisation category of the awards in March.
ELP Alums Reflect on the UNFCC COP17, January 2012
Goldman Environmental Prize Goes to ELP Alumnus, May 2011
ELP Alums Report Back After the UNFCCC COP16 in Cancun, Mexico February, 2011