Volvo environment prize 2003 recognices efforts to alleviate poverty

The 2003 Volvo Environment Prize is being awarded to two pioneers who
placed people and their need in focus. Madhav Gadgil from India and
Mohammad Yunus from Bangladesh have each in his respective field created
new models for understanding and transforming the relationships between
poverty, development and the environment.

Professor Madhav Gadgil is one of the world's leading ecologists and
conservationists, a scientist who has conducted pioneering work in
integrating research on biodiversity with the needs of people and their
communities. He has worked to mitigate the conflicts of interests
between man's needs and the requirements of conservation. He was the
main contributor to the establishment of India's first biosphere reserve
in the Western Ghats. Professor Gadgil is inspired by the firm belief
that knowledge about the traditions and experiences of communities is of
central importance to scientific research as well as ecological and
social planning.

Dr. Mohammad Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in 1983, which in an
untraditional way provides small loans to villagers, especially women,
who would never qualify for commercial credits. These small loans helped
people to set up a small business from which they could earn money and
the degree of repayment of these loans is exeptionally high compared
with traditional banking. The environmental implications of the Grameen
project flow from its impacts on both social capital and women's
empowerment, strongly associated with conservation and sustainable
natural resource management.

The Volvo Environment Prize was established in 1989 and amounts to SEK
1.5 million that will be divided between the recipients. Through the
years the prize has recognized pioneering research on most aspects of
sustainable development, which is especially well exemplified by this
year's prize.The 2003 prize will be presented by the EU Commissioner for
the Environment, Margot Wallstrom, in a ceremony to be held on October
29, in Brussels, Belgium.

More detailed information on the prize and the winners, including
photos, is available on the Volvo Environment Prize website:
www.environment-prize.com

July 3, 2003

For further information, please contact:
Volvo Car Corporation: Christer Gustafsson, +46 31 59 65 25
AB Volvo: Marten Wikforss, +46 31 66 11 27