Awards

WorldFish Center’s work has been recognized through a number of awards to our staff and research teams:

• A six-person team with exceptional dedication and cutting-edge knowledge of computer applications has helped make the WorldFish Center’s online ReefBase the world’s largest repository of information on coral reefs—a fact recognized at the CGIAR Annual Awards ceremony this December in Beijing, China, where the ReefBase team was awarded the prize for Outstanding Scientific Support Team 2007.

  ReefBase is a sophisticated knowledge-management and information system that facilitates global monitoring and management of coral reefs to support broad-based efforts to protect them. For example, in early 2005, shortly after the December 26 tsunami in Southeast Asia, scientists and organizations around the world relied heavily on ReefBase for assessments of environmental damage to coral reefs in the region and impacts on affected coastal communities.

  Two-thirds of all reefs are in developing countries, and 500 million people in the tropics depend heavily on reefs for food, livelihoods, protection from natural disasters and other basic needs. In some developing countries, coral-based fish and other marine organisms provide up to 90 percent of all animal protein consumed. For many coastal communities in reef areas, fishing activities are the sole source of income. Globally, the total value of all the goods and services provided by coral reefs is estimated at US$375 million.

  From left: Kathy Sierra (Chair of the CGIAR), Moi Khim Tan and Jamie Oliver (ReefBase) and Zhai Huqu (CAAS President), Hall of the People, Beijing.

  Find further information on the importance of coral reefs here.

• WorldFish and parter CGIAR Centers won the 2006 CGIAR Outstanding Scientific Support Team Award for the CG Virtual Library. The CG Vlibrary (http://vlibrary.cgiar.org/) is a single Internet gateway that allows simultaneous searches in the online libraries of the CGIAR Centers as well as more than 160 external databases, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Library of Congress, London School of Economics and AGRIS. Full-text articles from over 4,000 periodicals are also accessible through the CG Vlibrary.

• WorldFish Scientists also won two prestigious prizes in the World Bank Global Development Marketplace competition. In Cameroon, the proposal on “Sustainable use of African rainforest rivers” was awarded $150,000, while in Malawi, the proposal jointly developed with WorldVision on “Adapting Aquaculture to HIV/AIDS affected households” won a prize and project grant. read full story

• Dr. Modadugu Gupta, Senior Research Fellow, won the 2005 World Food Prize for his work to enhance the nutrition of over one million people, mostly very poor women, through the expansion of aquaculture and fish farming in south and southeast Asia and Africa. read full story

• WorldFish Center was named a 2005 Tech Museum Awards Laureate, for its pioneering work in developing an improved strain of farmed tilapia, known as GIFT, which is especially suited to the needs of resource-poor farmers. read full story

• Two CGIAR awards were won by WorldFish teams in 2004: the CGIAR Outstanding Partnership Award went to Community-based Fisheries Management, a partnership coordinated by WorldFish Center in Bangladesh; and the FishBase Team won the CGIAR Outstanding Scientific Support Award for its scientific work in developing FishBase. read full story