SEED Award Winners make headlines

The story of 2009 Award winner Oro Verde's 'green gold' has spread a little further across the globe. BBC and One Planet Pictures have featured the mining collective as part of their World Challenge Series. The film provides a vibrant insight into the lives of the Colombian miners and documents the challenges they still face as they attempt to scale up and bring their ethically produced gold to the international market. Watch the BBC production here.

SolSource, one of the 2010 SEED Award winners, has attracted international media coverage for its innovative use of solar energy. SolSource's solar devices provide a portable heat source for cooking and electricity in low-income households and even turn their own waste heat into electricity. SciDev.net has featured the Chinese innovation which, in addition to winning the 2010 SEED Award, also received the St Andrews Prize in 2009. The St Andrews Prize is awarded by the University of St Andrews to environmental entrepreneurs. Read the full article here.

Blue Ventures, the community-run Marine Protected Area scheme which won a SEED Award in 2005, has gone from strength to strength. Volunteer research expeditions into Madagascar's coral reefs have won Blue Ventures the Virgin Holidays 2010 Responsible Tourism Award. The programme has also been awarded a second Rufford Small Grant for Nature Conservation in recognition of its work towards marine turtle research and conservation in Madagascar.