Cordilleran awarded the 2025 Frankfurt Conservation Award for indigenous rights and environmental protection

Tabuk City, Kalinga - Joji Cariño, a Cordilleran advocate of indigenous rights and environmental protection, has been awarded the 2025 Frankfurt Conservation Award—one of the world’s top honors for environmental heroes. 

Cariño has been a dedicated supporter of indigenous communities for than three decades now (35 years). She is dedicating herself wholeheartedly to making sure that indigenous knowledge is recognized in worldwide conversations, especially regarding environmental preservation and sustainable growth.

Her initiatives have been crucial in advancing the integration of indigenous knowledge into biodiversity and climate change policies.

At present, she serves as the Senior Policy Advisor at the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), an international non-governmental organization established in 1990. She formerly led the organization before taking on her current position as Senior Policy Advisor.

With her outstanding efforts to promote indigenous rights and safeguard the environment, she was conferred the Frankfurt Conservation Award ( Bruno H. Schubert Prize) on April 24, 2025, from the Bruno H. Schubert Foundation. 

The award was given to her in recognition of her extraordinary contributions toward the protection of biodiversity on a global scale.

The Bruno H. Schubert Foundation is an international organization that endorses scientific advancement and its practical application in protecting against environmental threats.

Joji Cariño’s story serves as a reminder that safeguarding nature means honoring those who have tended to it the longest.