ISLAMABAD: In recognition of her activism and accomplishments, environmentalist Aisha Khan has been given the 2019 Stanford Bright Award for Environmental Sustainability.

This annual $100,000 award, Stanford’s largest environmental prize, recognises exceptional contributions to global sustainability and is given to an organisation in one of 10 rotating regions each year.

The award will be presented to Ms Khan on Oct 3 at Stanford Law School. As part of the presentation, she will give a public lecture and participate in a panel discussion followed by a reception.

The prize was made possible by a gift to Stanford Law School from Ray Bright, Stanford Law School class of 1959, a lifelong conservationist, and his wife, Marcelle. This is the seventh year the prize has been awarded.

In 2001, Ms Khan took her first trekking trip in northern Pakistan’s Karakoram range, the grand, glacier-filled home of K2, the second-highest mountain in the world. While on her trek, she saw that tourism in the area had produced a shocking amount of pollution, and she was determined to do something about it.

Witnessing the environmental degradation of that magical landscape was perhaps the turning point in her consciousness.

“It was then that I fully understood the elemental power of nature and felt compelled by an inner urge to preserve and protect the environment,” she said in one of her statements.

Since then, Ms Khan has led and coordinated multiple efforts to restore and preserve the high mountain regions of Pakistan in ways that benefited local economies and empowered their people. She has also brought together organisations, individuals and governments to combat climate change in Pakistan.

Ms Khan established the Mountain and Glacier Protection Organisation (MGPO).

Her first project was organising six weeks of cleaning trails and campsites on the path to K2, followed by six weeks of creating three sustainable campsites, which are managed and maintained by local residents.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2019