FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 20142014 BLUE PLANET PRIZE:
ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRIZE WINNERS■ Prof. Herman Daly ( USA )■ Prof. Daniel H. Janzen ( USA ) andInstituto Nacional de Biodiversidad ( Costa Rica )This year marks the 23rd awarding of the Blue Planet Prize, the international environmental award sponsoredby the Asahi Glass Foundation, chaired by Tetsuji Tanaka. Two Blue Planet Prizes are awarded to individuals
or organizations each year that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application, andin so doing help to solve global environmental problems. The Board of Directors and Councillors selected thefollowing recipients for this year.
1. Prof. Herman Daly ( USA )Professor Emeritus, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

Prof. Daly redefined “steady state economics” through the concept of sustainability byincorporating such factors as the environment, local communities, quality of life, and ethics
into economic theory, which lead to building a foundation of ecological economics. He has
been questioning whether economic growth brings happiness to humans and has beenissuing warnings to society, which tends to overemphasize economic growth. As aconsequence, he has had a significant international influence.

2. Prof. Daniel H. Janzen ( USA )Professor, Department of biology, University of Pennsylvania

Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) (Costa Rica )Prof. Janzen and the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad of Costa Rica
(INBio) propose measures and policies on sustainable development inharmony with local environmental conservation and local inhabitants andworks on environmental education and the conservation of biodiversity.
INBio’s activities serve as a valuable role model, from which people both indeveloped and developing countries around the world should learn.

Both recipients will be awarded a certificate of merit, a commemorative trophy and a supplementary award of
50 million yen.
The awards ceremony will be held on November 12, 2014 (Wednesday), at the Palace Hotel Tokyo (Chiyoda
Ward, Tokyo). The commemorative lectures by the prize recipients will be held at the United Nations
University (Shibuya Ward, Tokyo) on November 13 (Thursday).
*This press release may also be viewed on our web site at www.af-info.or.jp. from 14:00, June 18, 2014.
The photos of the recipients are available from the web site of the Asahi Glass Foundation.

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Report on the Selection Process (23rd Annual Prize, 2014)
A total of 620 nominators from Japan and 770 nominators from other countries recommended
119 candidates. The fields represented by the candidates, in order of number, were ecology (27),atmospheric and earth sciences (20), Multidisciplinary field (19), environmental economics andpolicy making (17).
The candidates represented 28 countries; 28 persons, 27 percent of the total, were fromdeveloping countries.
After individual evaluation of the 119 candidates by each Selection Committee member, thecommittee was convened to narrow down the field. The results of their deliberation were
examined by the Presentation Committee, which forwarded its recommendations to the Board of
Directors and Councillors. The Board formally resolved to award the Prize to Prof. Herman
Daly, and jointly to Prof. Daniel H. Janzen and Costa Rica’s Instituto Nacional de
Biodiversidad (INBio).

For more information, please contact: Tetsuro Yasuda
THE ASAHI GLASS FOUNDATION
2nd Floor, Science Plaza, 5-3 Yonbancho Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 102-0081 Japan
Phone +81-3-5275-0620 Fax +81-3-5275-0871
e-mail: post@af-info.or.jp
URL: http://www.af-in fo.or.jp

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Attachment

Profile of the 2014 Blue Planet Prize Recipient
Prof. Herman Daly ( USA )His achievement in building the foundation of ecological economics is tremendous, as he built
in elements, namely, the environment, regional communities, quality of life and morality into
economics and incorporated the principle of sustainability into steady state economics.
Specifically, he had a major impact on the world by identifying indicators that are essential for asustainable human society that are well known as Herman Daly’s three rules*1. Also, hequestioned whether economic growth is connected to the well-being of mankind and presented
the concept of the Herman Daly pyramid*2, which sounded an alarm to the world that tends tooveremphasize economic growth. This professor, thus, can be seen as one of the people whopioneered and established a new field of economics known as ecological economics. Further, in
addition to research activities, the professor co-founded the journal Ecological Economics with
Robert Costanza, Ann-Marie Jansen, and Joan Martinez-Alier, and encouraged invigorated
discussions on ecological economics. He also impacted a vast number of people through his
activities within The International Society for Ecological Economics, the World Bank (where heworked for six years with the late Robert Goodland, the World Bank’s first ecologist andpioneer in environmental assessment), universities and other venues, and also contributed to aseries of talent emerging in this field.
*1 Herman Daly’s three rules
1. The sustainable use of renewable resources means that the pace should not be faster than
the rate at which they regenerate.
2. The sustainable use of nonrenewable resources means that the rate should not be faster thanthe pace at which their renewable substitutes can be put into place.
3. The sustainable pace of emission for pollution and wastes means that it should not be fasterthan the pace at which natural systems can absorb them, recycle them, or render themharmless.
*2 The Herman Daly pyramidThis pyramid was conceived from
Herman Daly’s question ofwhether economic growth truly
leads to an improvement in thepeople’s quality of life.
He presented a pyramid thattranscends the elements of theeconomy that can be conjured up
under normal circumstances(artificial capital (factories,
facilities, etc.), human capital(labor, knowledge, skills),
financial capital) and added
natural capital, which envelopes the economy’s possibilities and specifically its limitations,as well as social capital and human capital. The pyramid consists of these stages, throughwhich people achieve their ultimate purpose of well-being. By using natural capital as the3foundation, securing and achieving sustainability is not measured by economic growth, but isassessed by the ultimate goal of the degree of achievement of well-being for all of mankind.
The pyramid, thus, represents a schematic that places the middle world of economics
between the apex of ethical desirability and the base of biophysical possibility.
Biographical Summary

1938

Born in Houston, Texas

1960

Bachelor of Arts (Economics), Rice University (Houston, Texas)

1967

Ph.D. in Economics, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee)

1968

Associate Professor, Louisiana State University
Visiting Professor, Economics Department, University of Ceará, Brazil

1969-1970

Research Associate, Yale University

1973

Professor, Louisiana State University

1980

Visiting Fellow, Centre for Resources and Environmental Studies, Australian
National University

1983

Fulbright Senior Lecturer, Brazil

1983-1988

Alumni Professor, Louisiana State University

1988-1994

Senior Economist, Environment Department, World Bank

1994-2010

Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

2010-present

Emeritus Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

Awards

1991
1995
1996
1996
1999
2001
2002
2010

Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order
Conservation Biology Society Award
Heineken Prize for Environmental Science
Honorary Right Livelihood Award
Sophie Prize for Environment and Development
Leontief Prize for Advancing Economic Thought
Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic
National Council for Science and the Environment, Lifetime Achievement Award

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Prof. Daniel H. Janzen ( USA ) and Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad ( Costa Rica )Professor Daniel Hunt Janzen
Prof. Janzen, a world-renowned researcher of tropical biodiversity, has achieved great results in
Costa Rica, jointly with his collaborator Dr. Winnie Hallwachs, towards exemplary tropicalenvironmental conservation, such as by ecosystem-level dry and rain forest restoration andbiodiversity conservation through non-damaging biodiversity development *1. The Instituto
Nacional de Biodiversidad of Costa Rica (INBio), for which Prof. Janzen and Dr. Hallwachs are
two of the founders, has been globally preeminent in its activities in biodiversity research,biodiversity use, and conservation. Their activities, such as using DNA barcoding*2 and othertools to explore sustainable use of wild biodiversity and transmit biodiversity information, havebeen a global example and inspiration for restoration and conservation of fragile wild nature intropical countries.
The practical activities of Costa Rica’s INBio range widely from gathering and identifying morethan 3 million Costa Rican specimens, building and offering internet-based search tools for
specimens, management and transmission of massive amounts of biodiversity information,
environmental education, and international commercial cooperations based on the premise ofsustainable wildland conservation. These things are all embedded in environmental preservation
policies designed for specific places and purposes. By using Prof. Janzen’s profound insightsfrom years of tropical biodiversity research and observation as fodder, coupled with nationalcommon sense, the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) of Costa Rica is working on
measures for nature conservation and sustainability through non-damaging development, while
maintaining harmony between environmental preservation and the resident societies in whichthat environment is embedded. INBio’s initiatives for preserving biodiversity throughenvironmental education and non-damaging biodiversity development, as supported by policy
proposals and by explicit actions in and for Costa Rica’s conserved wildlands, have impressed
many people and governments..
INBio is a valuable practical role model that demonstrates a way to resolve environmental
problems by implementing specific policies that harmonize wildlands with society, and an
example from which both industrialized and developing nations can learn.
*1 Prof. Janzen attained his prominence by demonstrating that tropical dry and rain forests canbe restored with local human resources and common-sense mission-directed policies, a.k.a.
adaptive management, and by application of his 50 years of tropical biodiversity knowledge.
This biocultural wildland restoration in turn reversed the kind of habitat fragmentation andspecies loss through insularization that is destroying much of tropical biodiversity. The
actual demonstration is the reconnection and consolidation of many small forest (and now,
marine) fragments in the 165,000 hectare Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in
northwestern Costa Rica, which was severely ranched and agriculturalized for four
centuries, into one regenerating landscape from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean rain
forest lowlands (http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr). In doing this, ACG conserves as many
species as 75% of the USA and Canada combined, and does it with a Costa Rican staff
dedicated to very long term ACG survival, financed by both government and the private
sector. While this very large and diverse habitat island in its ocean of agricultural landscapewill lose some of its hundreds of thousands of species through insularization, the great
majority will survive through being able to shift locations and ecosystems in the face of
unavoidable climate change, and through ACG being a useful and welcome member of thesociety in which it resides.

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*2 “DNA Barcoding” is the cheap and easy use of small and easily extracted signature DNA
sequences for anyone to identify a specimen and discover unknown ones, especially in thespecies-rich tropics, as pioneered by Professor Paul Hebert of the University of Guelph,
Canada (http://ibol.org), and intensively proof-of-concepted in Area de Conservacion
Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica (http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr), as part ofits wildland conservation through non-damaging biodiversity development, as guided by
ACG, Janzen & Hallwachs, and INBio.
Biographical Summary

1939
1961
1965
1969
1972
197219781989

Born in Milwaukee, United States
Graduates from University of Minnesota
Receives his doctorate degree (entomology) at the University of California, Berkeley
Associate Professor, University of Chicago
Professor, University of Michigan
Research Advisor, Costa Rica National Park organizations
Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Establishes the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) in Costa RicaAwards

1975
1984
1989
1994
1997
2005
2011
2011

Gleason Award, American Botanical Society
Crafoord Prize, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Joseph Leidy Medal, Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences
Silver Medal Award, International Society of Chemical Ecology
Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences
25 people who made a difference, Smithsonian Institution
Premio INBio al Mérito en la Conservación de la Biodiversidad Costarricense
BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge in Ecology and Conservation Biology

6Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio)
The establishment in 1986 of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining (MIRENEM) of
Costa Rica was a landmark in the national efforts initiated a few decades earlier, to conserve andsustainably use its natural biological wealth.
Although initially conservation was conceived as strict protection of natural resources, this concept was
giving way to a view of conservation as an opportunity to incorporate nature conservation into thesocioeconomic development of the country.
The view of biological diversity and its basic components (genetic, species and ecosystems) began togather force, and in 1989 the Costa Rican Government established a high-level commission, comprising
representatives of several organizations, to examine the idea of establishing an agency, a national
biodiversity institute, that would address the issue of biodiversity conservation and its link to thesocioeconomic development of the country.
The commission identified the need for a new institution that could work alongside the National System
of Protected Areas and broaden its agenda, moving away from the protectionist stance toward a visionthat targeted conservation and development. At the time, however, the initiative to create a new public
institution was politically and financially impossible. For this reason governmental authorities endorsed
the idea of a National Biodiversity Institute as a civil society organization. INBio was thus established aprivate nonprofit association focusing on the generation of knowledge on biodiversity for its
conservation and sustainable use.
Founded in 1989, the National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio) is a private, non-profit, public interest
organization, which generates scientific knowledge about the country's biological diversity and makes it
available to the public, in order to achieve its mission: “to promote a greater awareness about the value of
biodiversity and thereby achieve its conservation and improve the quality of life of the human beings”.
INBio promotes that knowledge be used to instil values and promote responsible actions and decisions in
support of effective conservation measures. The core process of the institution consists in generating,processing and sharing information and knowledge about biodiversity with society. This core process
has been implemented through the following action areas, which are strongly interrelated:•

Education and Communication: Share information and knowledge about biodiversity withdifferent audiences: (decision-makers, general public, tourist industry, teachers, students, etc)
seeking to achieve a greater awareness about the value of biodiversity and consequently
promoting behavioral changes that will benefit its conservation. Use of mass and social media todisseminate information about biodiversity.

•

Science and Technology: Generate and capture information about the diversity of the species andecosystems of the country. This information is readily available for systematics, ecology,
biogeography, biodiversity informatics, and geographic information systems. At the same time, itestablishes the base line and develops monitoring programs for the different elements of biodiversity
in the country. Bioprospecting, the search for new profitable and sustainable uses from genetic andbiochemical biodiversity resources through scientific research, is developed and implemented incooperation with local and international private, academic and corporate partners.

•

Conservation: Integrates the information generated and managed by INBio to the decisionmaking processes for protection purposes and the sustainable use of biodiversity, not only for the
public, but also for the private sector. This leads to the establishment and management ofextensive networking activities with the conservation sector, as well as to the processing of theinformation, adding value to promote responsible decision-making.

•Biodiversity Informatics: Develops and applies biodiversity informatics tools to support theprocesses of information capturing, generation, management, analysis and dissemination.

•

Policy and Legislation: Provides information and criteria for decision making for the central
government, congress, local governments, as well as others who make decisions that affectbiodiversity.
7•Technical Assistance and Capacity Building: The institutional experience constitutes a service
provided to public and private entities within and outside the country. INBio has collaborated
with more than 45 countries around the world, on issues related to biodiversity conservation andmanagement, sustainable development and institutional development, aiming to strengthen
national capacities to contribute in complying with the Aichi Targets of the Nagoya Protocol of
the Convention of Biological Diversity.

INBio works in close collaboration with Costa Rica’s Government, through agreements and specificprojects with the Ministries of Environment and Energy, Foreign Affairs, Education, Science andTechnology, and Agriculture, as well as other public and private institutions such as universities andenterprises in and outside the country.
Awards
INBio´s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally as a unique institution in its
area. A list of Awards and Prizes received along its 25 years of work appears bellow.
2012
2011
2007

2006
2005

2004

2003
2001

2000
1998
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991

Partnership Award, South-South Triangular Cooperation, United Nations Office for South-South
Cooperation (Austria)
International Cooperation Award, Wings of the Americas, United States of America Forest
Service, (U.S.A.)
National Award for Institutional Contributions to Agriculture and Rural Development,Interamerican Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA) Ministry of Agriculture and National
University, (Costa Rica)
First Place, National Scientific and Technological Publisher. Consejo Nacional para
Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICIT), (Costa Rica)
Second Place, Iberamerican Webpage. Asociación Hispanoamericana de Centros Investigación y
Empresas de Telecomunicaciones (AHCIET), (Argentina)
First Place, II National Webpage Competition, Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, ICE y
RACSA, (Costa Rica)
Augusto González de Linares Award on Environment, Universidad de Cantabria, Consejería deMedio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio del Gobierno de Cantabria y la Empresa de
Residuos de Cantabria, (Spain)
Tech Museum Award 2003: Technology that benefits humankind, Tech Museum of Innovation, (U.S.A.)
First Place, National Scientific and Technological Publisher, Consejo Nacional deInvestigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICIT), (Costa Rica)
INBioparque, Member of the Creativity Map, Next Generation Forum Roundtable & LEGO Company
Tourism Business Merit, National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), (Costa Rica)
Friend of Nature, Asociación Costarricense de Profesionales en Turismo, (Costa Rica)
Research Benefiting the Environment and Future Generations Award, Feria Verde, (Costa Rica)
Prince of Asturias Award, Scientific and Technical Research. Prince of Asturias Foundation (Spain)
Conservation Biology Award, Society for Conservation Biology (USA)
Ancora Award in Science, La Nación (Costa Rica)
Peter Scott Award to Conservation, Species Survival Commission, IUCN
Honorable Recognition, Fundación Cultural Banesto (Spain)
International Environmental Award. Saint Francis of Assisi “Canticle to all Creatures”
Franciscan Center for Environmental Studies (Italy)8Remarks from the Award Recipients upon Notification of their Selection
Prof. Herman Daly ( USA )I am both honored and humbled to accept the magnanimous Blue Planet Prize from the Asahi GlassFoundation. The making of such important products as glass and chemicals is already a great benefit to theworld. Encouraging and supporting others in their efforts to protect and improve our Earth home, as the Asahi
Glass Foundation does, is truly an example of generosity and service. When one is treated generously, thenone is inspired to treat others the same way. Thank you for that inspiration, and for including me among a listof recipients whom I have long admired.
This recognition is not only an encouragement to me, but also to many friends and colleagues who haveworked hard to protect and preserve our Earth from the destruction caused by excessive growth and carelesswaste. Among these I especially include my colleagues in the International Society for Ecological Economics.
If I have done anything to deserve this Prize it is to have provided a generational connecting link between mybest teachers and my best students. May this award strengthen that continuing chain into the future!

Prof. Daniel H. Janzen ( USA )We - all of us, including 2.6% of the world's biodiversity – are delighted and honored to learn of the Blue
Planet Prize for us and Costa Rica's INBio. This honor really is for a cast of thousands of Homo sapiens Costa Ricans and internationals - dancing with billions of other beasts, each doing their part to keep alivesome portion of the nature that produced all of us. It is wonderful and wise that years ago the Asahi GlassFoundation had the foresight to offer this support to attempts to move away from the very human tendency toconsume and alter our nest. Yes, we can restore some of what we have destroyed, and yes, we can help theworld to become biologically literate. Without bioliteracy, nature is just a green threatening mass and there islittle hope of its peaceful coexistence with all of us. We, INBio, and Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, arehappy recipients of this recognition of decades of trying to open the doors of conserved wildlands to nondamaging partnerships with humanity. Only through direct understanding of the wild world can society
welcome it into the family, village and nation.

Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) ( Costa Rica )To receive the prestigious Blue Planet Prize, given in recognition of our voluntary efforts to conserve Costa
Rica´s rich biodiversity is a great honor, which we appreciate in all of its significance. We are humbled to beamong many of the most outstanding authorities and leaders in the quest for solutions to the global
environmental problems who have been previously recognized with this award, as well as to share it with Dr.
D.H. Janzen, a world authority in tropical ecology and conservation with whom INBio has worked in amutually beneficial association.
What our National Biodiversity Institute has been able to achieve through its institutional efforts has been
largely determined by an enabling national environment; the endorsement of the Government of Costa Rica;
the support of bilateral and multilateral development agencies; the collaboration of the scientific community
and the profound commitment of INBio´s community with the cause of promoting a greater awareness of thevalue of biodiversity in our society.
The Blue Planet Prize becomes a new source of inspiration and motivation to continue our search for aharmonious relationship between humanity and our living world.
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Message to the Japanese publicProf. Herman Daly ( USA )The economy grows physically bigger, but the Earth does not. It becomes more full of us, andmore empty of nature. Expansion of the economy now increases environmental costs faster than
production benefits. We must move toward a sustainable steady-state economy. Japan is an
island nation already with a stationary population; a relatively equitable distribution of wealth;and an emphasis on qualitative improvement more than quantitative growth. It is therefore wellplaced to lead the transition from our failing growth economy to a steady-state economy—atransition that all countries will have to make.

Prof. Daniel H. Janzen ( USA )Thank you for inviting us into your home. You all know how to learn the languages of otherpeoples, and what that brings to you. You study, practice and use. There is a whole othersociety out there, all around you everywhere. Millions of species of them. We ask you to learn
their language, study what they do, open your minds to what they are and offer. They are ourfirst teachers, stimulators, and inspiration. You are what you are through many millions of yearsof dancing with them. Reach out and bring the wild world to the table with you. That is what
we have been doing, what Costa Rica’s INBio and Area de Conservacion Guanacaste have been
doing. It works, and it makes for a better human life. Thank you Japan and thank you Asahi
Glass Foundation.

Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) ( Costa Rica )Twenty-five years ago a group of individuals concerned about the future of life on our planet
decided to act locally, establishing a National Biodiversity Institute in our small country of
Costa Rica, with the ambitious mission “…to promote a greater awareness of the value of ourrich biological diversity, to ensure its conservation and improve the quality of life of humanbeings”. Our efforts and accomplishments, now recognized by the prestigious Blue Planet Prize,
reaffirm our belief that the protection of living nature is a universal value that serves theinterests of humanity, thus a common purpose for which we all can work together.

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