MANILA – Ecuador’s Olga Alava was crowned Miss Earth on Saturday after beating out contestants from 84 countries at the final of this international beauty competition, held this year in the Philippine capital.Alava, 23, a native of Guayaquil and an international business graduate, was crowned queen of a pageant mostly dominated by Latin beauties who took three out of the top four places in the final.

Olga Mercedes Álava Vargas is an Ecuadorian beauty pageant titleholder and Top Model who was crowned Miss Earth Ecuador 2011 and is the reigningMiss Earth.

Brazil’s Driely Bennettone was first runner-up and won the title of Miss Earth-Air, while the Venezuelan Caroline Medina came in fourth and was named Miss Earth-Fire. Philippine Athena Imperial was third with the honorary title of Miss Earth-Water.

“Celebrating Forests for People” was the slogan of this year’s Miss Earth pageant, created by the Philippine company Carousel to raise awareness about the environment and the effects of climate change.

The Ecuadorian beauty, an enthusiast about Asian culture who studied in China for a year and speaks Mandarin, succeeds Nicole Faria from India, winner of the contest held a year ago in Vietnam.

Alava presented an ecological project for protecting Ecuador’s mangroves and has also become a spokeswoman for the protection of the Yasuni biosphere reserve in her country.

During the event she answered a question from the jury by saying that “education is the best solution for the environment because children are those who have to preserve the Earth for future generations.”

The winner will receive a cash award of $20,000 along with other prizes, and will become the spokeswoman for the Miss Earth Foundation and the United Nations Environment Program.

 

OFFICIAL RESULTS

Olga Alava won the 11th edition of Miss Earth 2011 held at the at the University of the Philippines Theater in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.

Miss Earth 2011: Ecuador – Olga Alava

Miss Air: Brazil 

Miss Water: Philippines

Miss Fire: Venezuela

TOP 8
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Crimea

Mexico

Zimbabwe

Top 16:
Chinese Taipei (Taiwan)

Japan

Paraguay

Portugal

Slovenia

Sweden

Thailand

Ukraine

What environmental project will Olga Alava create to promote the protection of Mother Earth and why, she replied that “My principal Project is to preserve the mother earth, taking care of the forests which give us the air to live, and are habitats for biodiversity. Campaigns dedicated to children and teenagers teaching the importance of preserving and planting. The project for my country will be to help preserving the reserve Yasuni national park by promoting it importance abroad.”

Olga Alava’s environmental advocacy : “Preserving the forests and making campaigns and people conscious to plant and preserve what already exist as the forests are the lungs of the world.”

Miss Earth is an annual international beauty pageant promoting environmental awareness. Along with Miss Universe and Miss World contests, Miss Earth is one of the three largest beauty pageants in the world in terms of the number of national-level competitions to participate in the world finals. Miss Earth is also one of the most publicized beauty contests in the world. The reigning titleholders dedicate their year to promote specific projects and often address issues concerning the environment and other global issues.

In 2006, the Miss Earth pageant started to cohost the United Nations Environment Programme‘s Champions of the Earth, an annual international environment awards established in 2005 by the United Nations to recognize outstanding environmental achievers and leaders at a policy level.

This year Curaçao was represented by Miss Miluska Willems in the Miss Earth pageant, who won a distinction during the competition as Miss Earth Bikini Princess.  Very proud of her, I imagine all her hard work to get to Manila she can now be proud of. And she may be one that opens up doors for our nation in this pageant also. G!

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