This award is given by the UN in the framework of its program for the Environment (UNEP), int.ert.gr reports.
The 26-year-old Greek, the only European to be awarded, was honored by the UN for the startup vocational fishing school ENALIA, which trains, strengthens, and motivates the local fishing community to collect plastics from the sea, thus enabling fish stocks and the ecosystem to recover.
Lefteris noticed that many fishing boats in his city, Piraeus port, were returning with nets full of plastic instead of fish.
These plastics were then thrown back into the sea.
This situation pushed him to establish the first vocational school of fishing ENALIA in 2016 with a double aim.
First to educate fishermen how to practice their profession in a more ecological way and second to involve them in the effort to clean the Mediterranean of plastics through the Mediterranean Cleanup initiative.
Since the start of the action, ENALIA has removed more than 80 tons of plastics from the sea.
Today ENALIA is active in 12 Greek ports and in Rimini, Italy, in collaboration with 700 fishermen on 145 boats in Greece and Italy offering monetary compensation for plastics returning to shore.
The collection of plastic waste is calculated at 12 tons per month.
Lefteris Arapakis comes from a family of fishermen. For five generations his family has been active in the rich waters of Southern Greece, fishing for cod and red mullet.
Nevertheless, in recent years overfishing and pollution, especially from plastics, have affected Greek fisheries, resulting in a 34% reduction in catches over the last 50 years.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Wilfried Huss
