What is BVA?

• The Biodiversity Village Award (BVA) competition is designed to recognize the achievements of village communities including private and public sector constituencies - municipalities, members of local NGOs, teachers and school administrators, individuals from the private sector, and other professionals - who are contributing to a sustainable natural environment in their community.
• The BVA competition is a prestigious, publicity-charged program that provides participating municipalities with year-round opportunities to perform self assessment and build their own ‘nature portfolio’ increasing the distinction of their efforts as environmentally aware and active communities.
• BVA winning villages are publicly announced in the Fall. BVA winning villages representatives will receive an official plate at a special ceremony and each winning village will host a festival  to raise the visibility of the village and village community.

• The initial expectation of the project was that out of more than 20 villages, 10 to 12 at most would express interest in carrying on until the results are declared. In fact, in BVA 2011, 18 villages showed enthusiasm with regards to completing the first round of the BVA and have cooperated soundly with the American University of Beirut as well as regarded the BVA with high importance and took extreme care not to jeopardize their chances of remaining part of the project.