Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher (born
1940) is an
Ethiopian who won the
Right Livelihood Award in
2000 "for his exemplary work to safeguard biodiversity and the traditional rights of farmers and communities to their genetic resources."
Tewolde Berhan graduated in 1963 from
Addis Ababa University and received his doctorate from the
University of Wales in 1969. He returned to Addis Ababa University where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Science (1974-78). Other activities include keeper of the National Herbarium (1978-83), the President of
Aswara University (1983-91) and Director of the Ethiopian Conservation Strategy Secretariat (1991-94). Since then he has been General Manager of the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia, which is effectively that country's Ministry of the Environment.
Tewolde Berhan is also named one of the 2006 winners of the United Nations top environmental prize.
"I am local, rural, communal. And I find that the whole world is a community. We have made progress in asserting our local community rights globally. We shall continue to do so."- Tewolde Berhan
*
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher's biography at the Right Livelihood Award website
