Ómar Ragnarsson, an Icelandic filmmaker and former reporter for RÚV, and one of the country’s most outspoken environmentalists, has been granted with the 2008 Seacology Prize for his fight for keeping Iceland’s highlands untouched.
According to Morgunbladid, Ragnarsson receives the award for having raised awareness among the Icelandic people of the effects of harnessing energy in the highlands and damage caused by the construction of dams.
Seacology said in a statement that financial benefits from such operations are low compared to the value which is lost when large territories of untouched nature have been destroyed. Ragnarsson should therefore be considered an environmental hero.
The Seacology Prize has been granted annually since 1992 to individuals who are considered to have made great contributions to the protection of ecosystems on islands around the world. The prize has never been granted because of environmental protection initiatives in Europe before.
Ragnarsson will receive the award formally in San Francisco on October 2.
Seacology, headquartered in Berkeley, California, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with the sole mission of preserving the ecosystems and cultures of islands around the globe.
