News

Winner Achievements from 2015

NOVEMBERAfter a decade of work by Rodrigo Medellin, in April 2015 the governments of Mexico, Canada and the US signed a continental agreement agreeing to cooperate to conserve bats across North America (Rodrigo Medellin, Gold Award winner 2012).

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The designation of the Blue Patagonia Biosphere Reserve, the largest in Argentina, was approved by UNESCO in June 2015 following the work of the Global Penguin Society which designed and proposed the Reserve to protect a key biodiversity hotspot in Patagonia. It is 3.1 million hectares – almost the size of Belgium – and will conserve both terrestrial and marine species including 40% of the global population of Magellanic penguins (Pablo Borboroglu, Whitley Award winner 2010).

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A programme encouraging rangers and local communities to combat snow leopard poaching has been launched in collaboration with the Government of Kyrgyzstan and a new 3-year grant has been secured to scale up the programme nationally to cover all 20 of the country’s wildlife reserves. The programme is partnering with INTERPOL who will be responsible for delivering training on anti-poaching and illegal trade in snow leopards (Charu Mishra, Whitley Award winner 2005).

Pink river dolphin

Brazil has banned the trade in mota catfish to stop the killing of pink river dolphins which are used as fishing bait. Approximately 1,600 pink river dolphins are killed each year for this purpose. This is the result of significant government lobbying to put an end to this practice which could seriously threaten the future of river dolphins in the Amazon (Fernando Trujillo, Whitley Gold Award winner 2007).

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Following work led by Melvin Gumal and his team, in July 2015, the Chief Minister of Sarawak announced his intention to protect the State’s estimated 2,500 orangutans and their habitat through a series of actions including: halting the expansion and establishment of oil palm plantations, stopping new timber logging licenses from being issued and ensuring there is no commercial trade in orangutans (Melvin Gumal, Whitley Award winner 2014).

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The largest wild salmon spawning river on Sakhalin Island, which rests off the east coast of Russia and contributes one fifth of the Pacific’s wild salmon, is cleaner thanks to Dmitry Lisitsyn and his team at Sakhalin Environment Watch, who won a court appeal seeking to close a polluting gold mine on the Langeri River. The River is home to native and endangered Sakhalin taimen, a fish which can reach up to 6 ft. long. The appeal was made following an environmental assessment carried out by Dmitry’s NGO the previous year (Dmitry Lisitsyn, Whitley Award winner 2006).

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After a two-year absence, lions have returned to Westgate Conservancy in Northern Kenya where Ewaso Lion’s Warrior Watch programme has been working to encourage coexistence between lions and people through education, capacity-building and empowering young Samburu warriors to become wildlife ambassadors (Shivani Bhalla, Whitley Award winner 2014).

Asian elephant herd_Ganesh Raghunathan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M.D. Madhusudan undertook the first effort in India to compile and produce a fine-grained map of the distribution and relative abundance of the Asian elephant in Karnataka State. The map highlighted the need for increased connectivity between protected areas, and has been incorporated into the State Government’s management system. The map has also been used to officially demarcate the first ‘elephant range’ in the State, and a process has been put together to review and mitigate activities within this range that could potentially harm elephants (M.D. Madhusudan, Whitley Award winner 2009).

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The International Grey Crowned Crane Single Species Action Plan developed by Kerryn and her team was adopted at the 6th Meeting of the Parties to the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement in November 2015. This will ensure that African governments acknowledge the plight of the species and commit to their roles outlined in the plan to contribute to the future conservation of this endangered bird (Kerryn Morrison, now leading Lindy Rodwell’s project, Whitley Award winner 1999).

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2015 saw 29 young Imperial Eagles fledge their nests in Bulgaria, the highest number ever recorded. This is thanks to Stoycho’s nest-guarding programme and involvement of local communities in monitoring and conservation activities (Stoycho Stoychev, Whitley Award winner 2014).

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In December 2015, the Verkhneamursky (Upper Amur) Wildlife Refuge was declared in Russia covering over 200,000ha. This new protected area is vital for the conservation of unique ecosystems along the Upper Amur River, including threatened species such as the black stork, great Siberian sturgeon and Amur sturgeon (Eugene Simonov, Whitley Award winner 2013).

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The first ever course on bat biology and conservation open to nationals in Belize has been established by three previous Whitley Award winners: Lisel (currently Belize´s Minister of the Environment), Bernal and Rodrigo. They first discussed running such a course while at the 2012 Whitley Awards Ceremony in London and the dream has finally become a reality (Lisel Alamilla, Whitley Award winner 2012; Bernal Rodriguez-Herrera, Whitley Award winner 2012; Rodrigo Medellin, Gold Award winner 2012).