Biodiversity Prize 2010 again awarded to UN Periódico

This is the second consecutive year in which a journalist from Universidad Nacional de Colombia"s Communications Unit (Unimedios) obtains the first place in this important journalistic event on the environment, in this case, selected among 82 pieces or work from the entire country.

Furthermore, Elizabeth Cañas, a journalist from Unimedios Medellin, obtained the third place in the same category with the article "Butterflies with a barcode." Both articles were published in UN Periódico, a newspaper devoted to publish topics related to science, technology, research and culture.

"This is a recognition given to the Communication Unit (Unimedios) from Universidad Nacional de Colombia for its work on the diffusion of the investigations performed by its professors, who enrich everyday their students knowledge from their disciplines and contribute significantly to society and to the development of the country," affirmed journalist Elizabeth Vera Martínez, former student of Universidad Los Libertadores.

She also asserted that "likewise, the prize is an incentive to keep working with a lot of responsibility and dedication to these topics, which in most cases do not seem to be important for some. It is our responsibility to give them the status they deserve to work for the conservation and preservation of our natural richness, for us and for our children."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Cañas affirmed that these recognitions permit environmental topics to be part of the national agenda. Besides, it proves that the media can talk about assorted things.

One of the juries of this award was Brigitte Baptiste, the sub-director of the Humboldt Institute, who emphasized that the role of the communication media is vital to let people know about the big environmental problems the country has. "Journalists, with their critical perspective, can help society to be aware about environmental issues. This was one of the criteria for the selection of the articles," she said.

In the same way, Sandra Bessudo, Presidential High Counselor for Biodiversity, motivated the winners to keep exploring new topics related to the protection of collective interests regarding the environment.

It is important to mention that "Expedition of Universidad Nacional de Colombia helps preventing environmental catastrophe in Vaupes" refers to several investigations carried out by several research groups from the University, after listening to 20 indigenous communities, which were alarmed since their space was being intervened by mining incursions. In this sense Ingeominas gave in less than a month six concessions to the same contractor, for a total of 42,143 hectares for gold exploitation.

For this reason, the Capitan Association requested National Parks to declare the zone as protected area, and requested Universidad Nacional de Colombia to elaborate an inventory of its biodiversity in order to declare it National Park. Hence, several professors from the Natural Sciences Institute, supported by a botanist from the Amazon Institute for Scientific Research (Sinchi, for its acronym in Spanish), went into Vaupes" forests for 20 days in order to inspect the zone and describe the species inhabiting the place.

Close to 2,510 species of flora and fauna were found during the expedition, from which 63 were declare new species for science, and 60 of them are in different degrees of risk.

Finally, the Ministry for the Environment, through National Natural Parks, declared this area as protected, which make it the 55^th on the list of protected areas in the country.