Hyderabad — During a beautiful award ceremony in Hyderabad, India, Namibia received the Silver Future Policy Award 2012.

The only international award that celebrates policies rather than people was given to Namibia in recognition of its Marine Resources Act from 2000. The award was handed to the Honorable Kilus Nguvauva, Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, by Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Director of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law and member of the World Future Council. The ceremony was convened by the World Future Council (WFC), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), with support from the Okeanos Foundation.

Nguvauva proudly accepted the award on behalf of Namibia. He stressed: "It gives me great pleasure to stand before you today to receive the Future Policy Award 2012 on behalf of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources and indeed the entire Namibia. My presence here is a testimony to over twenty years of Namibia's efforts to rebuild the stocks of its marine resources and manage the fisheries on a sustainable basis as envisaged in the cardinal law of the land, in Article 95 of the Namibian Constitution."

In the ceremony the importance of healthy oceans and coasts for the well being of future generations was stressed by high profile speakers like Dr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), who delivered the welcome address, Dr. Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and Jakob von Uexkull, Founder of the World Future Council and the Right Livelihood Award.