Miss Ecuador Katherine Espín is Miss Earth 2016! The 23-year-old was crowned the winner by Miss Earth 2015 Angelia Ong at a glittering event held on 29 October at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Philippines.
Colombia's Michelle Gomez was named Miss Earth - Air, Venezuela's Stephanie De Zorzi as Miss Earth - Water and Miss Brazil Bruna Zanardo as Miss Earth Fire. Unfortunately, Philippine bet Imelda Schweighart failed to make it to the Top 16.
"I feel blessed to be here. Actually, this is my dream. I have been wanting to be Miss Earth since I was 16 years old. There was an Ecuadorian named Olga Alava, [who] won the pageant, and I remembered that when I saw her, I saw myself winning and I'm making my dream come true," Espín said after the win.
The beauty queen hopes she can be the voice for environmental issues, and work towards solving them. She was quoted as saying in Rappler: "I want to work. I'm a lawyer and I fight for justice. And I fight for what's good. And now as Miss Earth, I will fight for the environment. I will fight to make a change in the world and to actually have people being conscientious about the environment and the respect that we need towards it."
"I really want to say to all the girls out there watching this right now everything is possible. You just have to put your heart and soul for it, if you want to accomplish your dream, everything is possible. Dream, because dreams come true," Espín added.
Scroll down to take a look at crowning moments of Miss Earth 2016.
