Right Livelihood Award

Jakob von Uexkull

The Right Livelihood Award, established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, is presented annually in the Swedish Parliament, on December 9, to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". An international jury decides the award in such fields as environmental protection, human rights, sustainable development, health, education, peace, etc. The prize money is shared among the winners, usually four, and is equivalent to US$230,000.

It also sometimes known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, although it is not in any way related to the Nobel Prize. RLA actively tries to get themselves associated with the Nobel prize, for example, they have chosen to have their ceremony the day before the Nobel Prize. On their web page, they make various comparisons with the Nobel Prize, and they also provide a number of diagrams detailing how much more fair distribution of the RLA prizes is than Nobel.

The idea of 'right livelihood' is an ancient one. It embodies the principle that each person should follow an honest occupation which fully respects other people and the natural world. It means being responsible for the consequences of our actions and taking only a fair share of the earth's resources.
In every generation, there are groups of people and individual around the globe who valiantly uphold these principles of right livelihood. They should be the stars in our human cosmos, but their work often entails personal sacrifice, being opposed by powerful forces around them.

This Award exists to strengthen the positive social forces that its recipients represent and to provide the support and inspiration needed to make them a model for the future. It has been said that if the Nobel Prizes reflected world concerns of the 20th century, the Right Livelihood Award should reflect those of the 21st.

Recipients include: Helena Norberg-Hodge, Plenty International, Bill Mollison, Wes Jackson, George Trevelyan, Petra Kelly, Wangari Maathai, Robert Jungk, Chipko movement, Survival International, Edward Goldsmith, Vandana Shiva, Astrid Lindgren, Juan Garcés, Leonardo Boff, Johan Galtung, Asghar Ali Engineer, Walden Bello, Frances Moore-Lappé, Memorial Society, Mordechai Vanunu, Manfred Max-Neef, Bianca Jagger, David Lange, Maude Barlow, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Roy Sesana, Trident Ploughshares and others.