The initiative is a tribute to the daughter of Ben Goldsmith, co-founder of IbizaPreservation, who died in a tragic accident in 2019 at the age of 15
**UPDATE: THE CLOSING DATE OF THE COMPETITION HAS NOW BEEN EXTENDED TO 24 APRIL 2021**
Ibiza, 29 January 2021 – IbizaPreservation has today launched One Minute for Your Island, a competition that seeks to motivate young people from Ibiza and Formentera to present creatively the main environmental challenges facing the islands and propose innovative solutions to better protect their surroundings.
The initiative is in memory of Iris Goldsmith, the daughter of Ben Goldsmith, one of the founders of IbizaPreservation. Goldsmith, a British investor and philanthropist with a passion for ecology, set up the Ibiza Preservation Foundation (now known as IbizaPreservation) in 2008 along with two friends, to help protect the Ibiza they loved. His daughter Iris died in a tragic accident on her family’s farm in England at the age of 15 in July 2019.
“Iris had a deep connection to the natural world and understood well that finding harmony with nature is the ultimate purpose of humanity,” said Ben Goldsmith. “Empowering other young people who share the same passion Iris had for the environment is a wonderful and very fitting way to honour her memory.”
The competition is open to young people aged 15 to 18 who live in Ibiza or Formentera. They are invited to submit a video of one minute or less, which presents an environmental problem affecting their island and offers an appropriate solution.
“We are looking for innovative but pragmatic ideas that reflect an understanding of the issue in question and a clear passion for the environment, as well as demonstrating original thinking and creativity in the making of the video,” said Frances Llopis, a member of both the IbizaPreservation board of trustees and the jury of the competition.
The window for submissions is 1 February to 31 March. The prize, worth a total of €500, will be announced in early June. It includes a scholarship for a week’s participation in Vellmarí Association’s Formentera Dive Camp during the summer, and €250 for expenses.
One Minute for Your Island is promoted by The Conservation Collective, a network of 11 environmental foundations around the world (of which IbizaPreservation was the first) and of which Ben Goldsmith, Iris’s father, is the president. Several of these foundations are participating in the initiative under the umbrella of The Iris Project.
The awards offer placements with environmental NGOs working in education and awareness-raising on issues such as climate change, marine conservation, biodiversity protection and sustainable development.
The rules of the One Minute for Your Island competition are available here.
