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Whitley Awards 2021: The Shortlist

Meet this year's top 15...

Every year we recognise six grassroots conservationists with Whitley Awards – prestigious prizes providing funding, training and profile.

This year we received 107 applications of an exceptionally high standard, representing diverse approaches across a broad range of countries, habitats and species in the global south.

Following a comprehensive assessment the top 14 candidates have been identified, all doing incredible work with communities to safeguard wildlife, habitats and the future of society:

  • Risper Oteke in Kenya: Empowering women to partake in ocean governance through sustainable livelihood opportunities
  • Bibhuti Lahkar in India: Building bridges between people and Asian elephants
  • Carlos Roesler in Argentina: Helping the Hooded Grebe – guardian of the Patagonian steppes
  • Iroro Tanshi in Nigeria: Collaborative action to conserve critical bat habitat and boost local livelihoods
  • Tatiana Arias in Colombia: Orchid conservation in the cloud forests of Colombia
  • Tulsi Subedi in Nepal: Community conservation of the Himalayan Bearded Vulture
  • Nuklu Phom in India: Establishing a biodiversity peace corridor
  • Rita Ratsisetraina in Madagascar: Bringing the red-ruffed lemur back from the brink
  • Joseph Onoja in Nigeria: Developing plant-based alternatives to vulture body parts in traditional medicine
  • Lucy Kemp in South Africa: Working with communities to restore the population of Southern Ground-Hornbill
  • Reynante Ramilo in the Philippines: Establishing a community-managed dugong Conservation Area Network in the Calamianes Island Group
  • Ransford Agyei in Ghana: Scaling up pangolin protection
  • Wahdi Azmi in Indonesia: Saving Sumatran elephants and their habitat
  • Pedro Fruet in Brazil: Bridging the gap through integrated conservation of the lahille’s bottlenose dolphin

We are currently going back to the candidates with questions, taking up references, carrying out financial screening and conducting rigorous due diligence. Our expert judging panel, made up of individuals from some of the UK’s leading conservation organisations, will then select finalists to be invited for interview. The winners of this year’s Whitley Awards will be announced on Wednesday 12th May

Congratulations to all the shortlisted candidates for making it to this stage.

Watch this space!