2020 Green Oscars Winners: Meet The Extraordinary Conservationists Saving Endangered Animals

 

 

This year’s winners of Green Oscars have been announced!
These extraordinary conservationists are all leading grassroots work in their home countries to protect the natural world and its wildlife.

This year’s winners of the Whitley Award supporting wildlife conservation dubbed the ‘Green Oscars’, have been announced.

The 2020 Whitely Award chooses winners who lead grassroots conservation work in countries across the Global South. The organisation behind it, the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), provides funding and training for people protecting the biodiversity of the planet in countries where natural wealth is abundant, but resources are poor. Winners have to be nationals of the countries where their work is carried out and projects have to be rooted in science and community involvement.

This year’s winners will be added to a global network of 200 conservationists who run projects in local communities in more than 80 different countries. Across the network, the WFN helps to facilitate the exchange and expansion of research that is helping save the swiftly dwindling biodiversity of the planet.

GOLD AWARD WINNER of the 2020 Whitely Award

Winner of the Whitley Gold Award, Patrícia Medici, founded Brazillian NGO IPÊ 26 years ago to protect threatened wildlife in the country. This special award recognises her outstanding long-term contribution to conservation.

Patrícia Medici leads the Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative which carries out cutting-edge research to understand the important role of the species in maintaining Brazil’s biodiversity. Lowland tapirs are South America’s largest land mammal and face an array of different threats including human land development, poaching and habitat loss.

“Tapirs are known as gardeners of the forest due to the important role they play in shaping and maintaining functioning ecosystems,” says Medici. “They are great ambassadors for habitat conservation.”

The prize is £60,000 (€68,638) worth of funding that will go towards supporting the Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative. Among other work, it will allow Medici to continue groundbreaking research into the risk of extinction for this little-known creature and deliver educational programmes to highlight the dangers it faces.

The 2020 Whitley Gold Award winner is:

• Patrícia Medici – Tapirs as conservation flagships, Brazil – Winner of the Whitley Gold Award donated by The Friends of the Whitley Fund for Nature

The winners of the 2020 Whitley Awards are:

• Abdullahi Hussein Ali – A landscape‐level approach to conserve the hirola antelope, Kenya – Winner of the Whitley Award donated by
  the Frank Brake Charitable Trust;
• YokYok (Yoki) Hadiprakarsa – Saving the last stronghold of the Helmeted Hornbill, Indonesia – Winner of the Whitley Award donated
  by the MAVA Foundation;
• Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh – Advancing participatory conservation action for rare chimpanzees, Nigeria – Winner of the Whitley Award
  donated by the Arcus Foundation;
• Gabriela Rezende – Connecting populations of black lion tamarins in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil – Winner of the Whitley Award donated by the Corcoran Foundation.
• Jeanne Tarrant – A country-wide strategy for South African amphibians – Winner of the Whitley Award donated by the William Brake Charitable Trust.
• Phuntsho Thinley – Stepping up patrols to preserve the endangered alpine musk deer, Bhutan – Winner of the Whitley Award donated by Anne Reece.

 

Each 2020 winner will receive £40,000 in project funding to carry out their vital work, and a boost in profile to help forge connections and leverage further support.