The 2025 Prize
This year, although very different, the topics addressed by the candidates were treated by highlighting a wide range of options such as raising awareness of caving, the protection and conservation of caves and karst environments, the concomitance between exploration results and scientific research, education and tourism without forgetting to identify ways to perpetuate their objectives.
The members of the 2025 France Habe Prize Jury rated each submission using an evaluation grid covering relevance, presentation, interdisciplinarity, photography, scientific content, readability and originality.
For 2025, the choice of the Jury was not easy given the quality of the six works submitted. Finally, the Jury decided, unanimously, to reward Laurent Bruxelles from France and his team for their project «Gcwihaba cave» – Bodsuana.
The 2025 France HABE Prize will be endowed with the €300 allocated by the UIS, the € 300 equipment offered last year by RESSEG, a set of two powerful lamps worth a total of $200 offered by CYANSKY, and now a set of three high-quality bags worth $250 offered by BANHAR.
The details of the project will be presented by the winner in the next UIS Bulletin.
The Jury congratulates particularly all the authors and contributors for their dynamism in speleology and their investment in the protection of caves and karst.
Origin of the prize
The France HABE Prize has been awarded since 2013 by the International Union of Speleology (UIS) to promote the protection of karst and caves for future generations. Their natural heritage is a proven source of increasingly rich information about the history of our planet and humanity, enabling people to act more thoughtfully, effectively and sustainably for the future of our environment.
On the proposal of his successor, the award is named in memory and honour of Dr France HABE († 10/12/1999) from Slovenia (Yugoslavia), who among her many occupations and achievements, among others, served as President of the ISU Protection Department from 1973 to 1997.
List of the France Habe prize winners
2013 Thomas Arbenz Switzerland for “Cave pearls of Meghalaya”,
2014 Verband der deutschen Höhlen-und Karstforscher Germany for“Cave animal of the year 2014″.
2015 Ciudadanos del Karso Puerto Rico for”Puerto Rico’s Karst Physiography Protection and Conservation Act”.
2016 Commission Wallonne d’Etude et de Protection des Sites Souterrains (CWEPSS) Belgium for “Atlas du Bassin du Hoyoux – 6e volume des Monographies karstiques par bassin versants”.
2017 Ir. JUNIAT Irawati Indonesia for the “Protection and management of karst regions in Indonesia”.
2018 The prize has not been awarded.
2019 Guglielmo RONAGHI Italy for “Light in the dark” (film).
2020 Olivier Testa, Vincent Rouquette Cathala et Phillip Lehman Dominican Republic for “Somos los cenotes project”.
2021 Speleological Group of Villacarrillo (GEV) Italy for “Our friends bats”.
2022 LA VENTA – Associazione Culturale Esplorazioni Geografiche Italy for the “Puerto Princesa underground river – Palawan – Philippines”.
2023 Daniel Caron Canada for “Centre d’interprétation du monde souterrain – Caverne de Saint Léonard – Montréal».
2024 Paul De Bie Belgium for the monograph project “La Magne souterraine – Le système Wuinant-Haminte et autres phenomena karstiques de la vallée de la Magne”
Jean-Pierre Bartholeyns
UIS Karst and Cave Protection Commission
President
Prihlásiť
