Ecuador’s Katherine Elizabeth Espin was crowned Miss Earth 2016 on Saturday night at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Espin said she feels so blessed to have won and thanked the people in the Philippines for their warm hospitality: “I have never been to a country where people are so warm-hearted and I really want to thank every single (person) in the Philippines because they made me feel like I’m in my home,” she told reporters. “People who have never seen me supporting me: that is something huge. Just by seeing that, I feel like a winner.”

Espin also outlined what she would do as the new Miss Earth. “I am a lawyer and I fight for justice and for what is good,” she said. “And now, as Miss Earth, I will fight for the environment and actually to have people be conscientious about the environment and about the respect that we need to have towards it.”

Also crowned as the new elemental queens were: Colombia’s Michelle Gomez as Miss Earth Air, Venezuela’s Stephanie De Zorzi as Miss Earth Water and Brazil’s Bruna Zanardo as Miss Earth Fire.

Corrin Stellakis from the USA, Nguyen Thi Le Nam Em from Vietnam, Aleksandra Cherepanova from Russia and Cloie Skarne from Sweden were the finalists. The rest of the semi-finalists were: Lyndl Kean from Australia, Denise Frigo from Italy, Itzel Astudillo from Mexico, Nozipho Magagula from South Africa, Clover Zhu from Macau SAR China, Luissa Burton from England, Chae-Yeung Lee from Korea and Julieann McStravick from Northern Ireland.

Miss Moldova, Tatiana Ovcinicova, was announced as winner of the Eco-Beauty Video competition; while Charlotte Hitchman of Wales was the first ever recipient of the Eco-Warrior Award.

Miss Earth 2016 is supported by Diamond Hotel Philippines, Oakwood Premier Joy-Nostalg Center Manila and Century Park Hotel as official residences of the delegates; together with official airlines Philippine Airlines and Air Asia; Institutional partnership with Department of Tourism and Tourism Promotions Board and brought you by Miss Earth Foundation and KITTCO Travel and Tours.