London, 1 May: UK charity the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is recognising seven outstanding conservationists with 2024 Whitley Awards for leading their communities in saving some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems and for their innovative solutions to the threats to nature in India, Brazil, Bhutan, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Cameroon and Nepal.
India’s Dr Purnima Devi Barman will receive the 2024 Whitley Gold Award of £100,000 for galvanising a movement of more than ten thousand local women to save the Greater Adjutant Stork and its wetlands habit in Assam. The wildlife biologist has transformed the outlook for the scavenger bird and the local women, known as “stork sisters,” who have become conservation leaders.
Sir David Attenborough, WFN Ambassador and long-term supporter of the charity, said winners represent some of the most impressive conservationists in the world and they “combine knowing how to respond to crises yet also bring communities and wider audiences with them.”
Charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, is presenting the awards to Purnima and the six new winners on May 1 at the Royal Geographical Society in a ceremony that marks the 30th anniversary of the very first award. The event will be livestreamed to YouTube. The new winners will receive £50,000 each to fund their work.
The winners are mobilising action within their communities to protect biodiversity and mitigate the impacts from rising temperatures, wildfires and flooding in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change. They join a network of 220 Whitley Award alumni who play a powerful role in shaping the global environmental agenda and who have influenced more than 200 international and national policies over three decades. The winners are:
Marine Biologist Naomi Longa and her all-female team of local and indigenous divers and snorkellers who are using AI to help safeguard the coral reefs in their native Papua New Guinea. The women are scaling up a network of locally managed marine areas in local waters in the Coral Triangle, home to 76 percent of the world’s coral reef species.
Cameroon’s Aristide Kamla, the country’s foremost expert in manatees, who is saving African manatee habitat from invasive freshwater ferns which blanketed the surface of Lake Ossa. Using methods of biological control he is restoring manatee habitat and has trained a network of fishers to report sightings of the elusive marine mammal.
Fernanda Abra from Brazil, where the Waimiri-Atroari people helped her to build low-cost canopy bridges over the BR-174 highway in the Amazon rainforest. This pioneering work is restoring connectivity for tree-dwelling mammals and protecting them from road collisions. The researcher plans to scale up to build bridges across the world’s most biodiverse country.
Bhutan’s Kuenzang Dorji, a wildlife biologist, who is “restoring harmony” between people and primates - local farmers and Endangered Gee’s golden langurs. Traditionally considered good omens, the monkeys are now raiding crops as climate change drives a shift in their behaviour. Kuenzang will train citizen scientists in how to collect primate data that supports long term monitoring in the ecologically fragile Himalayan Ranges.
Guyana’s Leroy Ignacio, a conservationist and Indigenous Makushi, who is stepping up efforts to protect the Endangered Red Siskin songbird as Guyana, the world’s fastest growing economy, navigates unprecedented change. Leroy is leading his team in expanding a conservation zone that five indigenous communities created on their land to protect the small finch.
Nepal’s Raju Acharya, who spearheaded a 10-year government plan to protect owls that harnesses the proactive participation of communities in central Nepal, home to ten ethnic groups. The country’s leading owl specialist, Raju is bolstering protection in central Nepal, where 19 of the country’s 23 owl species are found.
Whitley Award winners are playing a pivotal role in global efforts to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and sea by 2030. As many as five of the 23 targets set in the landmark global deal for nature agreed in 2022 recognise the essential role that local and indigenous people play in protecting biodiversity. World leaders will provide updates on their commitments for 30x30 when they meet for the COP16 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Colombia in October.
“Whitley Award winners think local and global - they are working with urgency and with agency to save biodiversity," said Whitley Fund for Nature Founder Edward Whitley OBE. "We need to back these crusaders for the natural world and celebrate every single conservation success."
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Notes to Editors
FOR INTERVIEW REQUESTS AND HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS, VIDEOS CONTACT:
Carol Roussel, Head of Media Relations, Whitley Fund for Nature E: carol@whitleyaward.org
T: 07379 019 804
Kate Stephenson, Head of Communications, Whitley Fund for Nature E: kate@whitleyaward.org
T: 07460 136 571
WHITLEY FUND FOR NATURE
The Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a UK charity supporting grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South. Over 30 years it has channelled £23 million to 220 conservationists.
An early pioneer in the sector WFN was one of the first charities to channel funding directly to projects led by in-country nationals. Its rigorous application process identifies inspiring individuals who combine the latest science with community-based action.
WFN’s flagship prizes – Whitley Awards – are presented by charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, at a prestigious annual ceremony in London at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). Winners receive funding, training, and profile boost, including short films narrated by WFN Ambassador Sir David Attenborough.
Every year, a past Whitley Award winner is chosen to receive the Whitley Gold Award, worth £100,000, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to conservation. Joining the Judging Panel, the Whitley Gold Award recipient also acts as a mentor to Whitley Award winners and an international ambassador for conservation success.
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