Julia Carabias Lillo

Julia Carabias Lillo, a Mexican of Basque background receives accolades from a Japanese newspaper for being awarder the Cosmos International Prize by the Commemorative Foundation.

Here is the note from The Japan Times:

Personality Profile

By VIVIENNE KENRICK

The Osaka 1990 International Exposition prominently proclaimed as its theme "The Harmonious Coexistence of Nature and Mankind." Since 1993 the Commemorative Foundation of that exposition has awarded its Cosmos International Prize to 11 scientists from different countries, recognizing them as important contributors to the exposition's principles. This year's recipient is professor Julia Carabias Lillo of Mexico.

In 2002, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, established an honorary doctorate "to commend and honor individuals who have made great contributions to academic research and international cultural exchange." The first recipient of this honor was Sadako Ogata, Japan's renowned former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. This year, believing that Carabias' career was an inspiration to its female students, the university conferred the honorary degree on Carabias, Mexico's leading environmentalist.

The child of Basque immigrants from Spain, Carabias was born exactly 50 years ago in Mexico City. She said, "I grew up witnessing the living conditions of people in Mexico, a developing country." Those childhood observations led her, later on, when she was a qualified scientist, to formulate her basic research policy: "always to view issues and envisage the future from the perspective of developing nations." She faced a dual task that she regards as a single, indivisible issue: the alleviation of poverty and the preservation of natural resources.

Carabias studied biology at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) of Mexico. After graduation, as a lecturer she stayed on at the university teaching courses in environmental science. At the same time, she continued her research into the regeneration of tropical forests, the management of natural resources and the conservation of the environment.

In 1982, Carabias received a message from the governor of Guerrero. This state, thought to be Mexico's poorest, already suffered from severe environmental destruction. At the governor's request, Carabias joined a team that included economists and ecologists. Both an academic and a field worker, she drew up a plan aimed at improving local standards of living whilst not exhausting natural resources. She instructed and enrolled local residents to guarantee informed continuity.

The four-year program, under the leadership of Carabias, received international recognition as a model for other developing countries to follow.

Within Mexico, the president acclaimed the Guerrero program. He called upon Carabias to develop similar programs for four other states. Each program could be similar only in principle. In practice each one was individual, as Carabias was asked to deal with different climatic conditions ranging over dry tropical, tropical rain forest, temperate forest and desert.

In 1994 the Mexican government appointed Carabias minister for the environment, natural resources and fisheries. Several achievements marked her six-year term. She restored a region devastated by forest fires. She doubled Mexico's protected areas. She brought together Mexican and American officials to begin restoring the natural course of river flow along the boundary between the two countries.

In 2000 Carabias returned to professorship at UNAM and to the presidency of the National Institute of Ecology. In the following year, the World Wildlife Fund awarded her its 23rd annual J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize.

In Japan to receive the Cosmos 2004 International Prize, Carabias commented, "Most environmental damage in the world has been caused in the last 50 years, and we should recognize with shame and humility that it is these generations, those who are still living, which have caused this serious damage to our Earth. . . . Carbon dioxide emissions have quadrupled annually from 1950; there is annual deforestation of 13 million hectares; 20 percent of the world population does not have access to drinkable water; there are 1,900 million hectares of degraded soil in the world; the majority of main lakes and rivers are contaminated; more than 2,700 million persons have incomes of less than $2 per day."

She repeats the warning that, without action now, by the end of this century the diversity of the world's species will be halved. She said, "Receiving the Cosmos Prize is not only an honor. It also commits me to continuing my work."

The Japan Times: Dec. 18, 2004

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