This award will grant 10 outstanding students €500 each, sponsored by Les Roches and SUNx Malta. This year there will be a Special Award of 1000 Euro In honour of the late Valere Tjolle, a pioneer of Green Tourism. The winners will be announced during SUNx Malta’s Strong Earth Youth Summit (SEYS) held on April 29, 2024.

All entrants will receive a complimentary copy of the Earth Charter from the Earth Charter Institute, along with an electronic version of the book “Remembering Maurice F Strong” from ECPD (European Centre for Peace and Development.

Students are invited to submit a thought-provoking 500-word essay on “Why is the Earth Charter more relevant today than when it was introduced by Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev in 2005 – especially for tourism in Least Developing Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS)?”

The Strong Earth Awards shed light on the Earth Charter’s vital sustainability messages and the visionary work of Maurice Strong, resonating in today’s climate-challenged world.

To learn more about the awards, visit www.thesunprogram.com. Explore the Earth Charter’s principles and values at www.earthcharter.org.

Please submit entries as Word documents to awards@thesunprogram.com, including the following – Full Name, Country, Gender, Word Count, and Name of University (if a student).

Submission Deadline: March 17, 2024

Judging will be conducted by a panel, co-chaired by Professor Geoffrey Lipman and Joceline Favre-Bulle, Director of Operations at Les Roches.

Professor Geoffrey Lipman, President of SUNx Malta, emphasizes, “As the IPCC Report starkly reminds us, time is running out to address the existential Climate Crisis. A point strongly underscored by the recent TPCC (Tourism Panel on Climate Change) Stocktake. The Earth Charter, conceptualized by Maurice Strong, is an essential foundation for comprehending Climate Friendly Travel and fostering much-needed resilience”

For more information, please contact awards@thesunprogram.com or call +32495250789