Veracruz high school students win Zayed Prize for marine conservation project

Mexican precocious schoolhouse students from the metropolis of Veracruz won the 2025 Zayed Sustainability Prize this week for a caller task that seeks to support marine ecosystems successful their state.

In a ceremonial held during Abu Dhabi’s sustainability week connected Tuesday, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), granted the grant to the winners. The Mexican students won successful the Global High School category, representing the Americas.

As winners of the Zayed award, the students volition person a important fiscal grant to enactment their conservation ideas into action. (Via Infobae)

The Zayed Sustainability Prize is the UAE’s pioneering grant for innovative solutions to planetary challenges. This year, it saw a 15% summation successful submissions implicit 2024.

The Mexican students were among 33 finalists selected from 5,980 entries received crossed six categories: Health, Food, Energy, Water, Climate Action and Global High Schools. They won with 2 projects: “Reforestation of the reddish mangrove successful information of extinction,” and “Capturing lionfish, an invasive taxon successful Veracruz reefs.”

As portion of the prize, they received US $150,000 to launch  their projects implicit the adjacent 2 years.

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE curate of Industry  and manager of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, noted that this year’s submissions bespeak the tendencies shaping our world.

One of the team’s winning projects progressive capturing lionfish, an introduced taxon that damages fragile reefs successful the Gulf of Mexico. (Christian Mehlführer/Wikimedia Commons)

“This year’s submissions bespeak the 3 megatrends shaping our future, namely the emergence of the Global South, the gait of the vigor modulation and the maturation of AI,” Al Jaber said. “These changemakers are tackling urgent biology challenges head-on, portion simultaneously advancing economical advancement done innovative solutions.”

Most submissions came from emerging countries, revealing that rapidly processing countries are astatine the forefront of catalyzing innovative solutions to code the existent clime issues.

The Mexican squad members see students Larissa Andrade Rodríguez, Briana Shirel Ruiz Tinoco, Abril Daniela López Hernández and Sinuhe Hernández Zárate from the Aquaculture Technician programme astatine their Veracruz metropolis precocious school, CETMAR No.7. They were led by biologist and teacher Arturo Palomino Sánchez.

“This year’s winners person showcased bonzer innovation successful addressing captious planetary challenges,” said erstwhile President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who led the award’s sheet of judges . “These winners person the imaginable to thrust significant, scalable interaction astir the world.”

These aren’t the archetypal students from Veracruz to triumph an planetary prize. Just past September, another agleam Veracruz student won the Chegg Global Student Prize for processing multi-lingual bundle that diagnoses diseases utilizing artificial intelligence.

With reports from Emirates News Agency WAM and Infobae