Reef Check has won the global Katerva Award for Ecosystem Conservation for our innovative citizen scientist reef monitoring and conservation work. Winners were announced on January 30, 2013. Through our Tropical and California reef programs, Reef Check has grown into the largest global reef monitoring organization, an accomplishment that is now being recognized by the Katerva Awards.

The Katerva Award is billed as the Nobel Prize in sustainability, where “the best ideas on the planet are identified, refined and accelerated for global impact” (Katerva, katerva.org). According to Terry Waghorn, founder and CEO of Katerva, “Today's unprecedented challenges require a new kind of organization, one that optimizes the world's unprecedented interconnectedness, prioritizes action and systematically taps the most innovative ideas on the planet. Katerva is that organization: designed to convene, catalyze and accelerate breakthrough solutions to global challenges.”

“We are overjoyed and very honored to have won the 2012 Katerva Award for Ecosystem Conservation in recognition of more than a decade of work to conserve reef ecosystems worldwide. This award is a testament to the passion and dedicated effort of more than 30,000 volunteers and hundreds of partners and supporters in over 90 countries and territories around the world who have undergone rigorous training so that they can carry out scientific surveys of reef condition, produce standardized data, and help governments sustainably manage their local reefs. This direct action by citizen scientists has resulted in slowing the decline of reef ecosystems and in many cases helped to return reefs to their natural condition. This award renews our resolve to continue our global efforts to improve reef status against alarming predictions of rapid climate change," says Reef Check’s Executive Director, Dr. Gregor Hodgson.

Click here to read the Forbes.com article about the awards: http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/01/30/the-worlds-best-sustainability-ideas/