We champion our Whitley Award winners through a global PR campaign, which this year saw their work featured in the Washington Post, The Times, The Financial Times and many other publications
Winning a Whitley Award is a career-defining moment that introduces our winners to the world stage, providing an opportunity to share the importance of their work on television, radio and in print through capitalising on the heightened interest that their award-win generates.
Alongside project funding, the long-term success of all conservation work depends upon building profile and connections – which is why we champion our Whitley Award winners through a global PR campaign around their award success.
By drawing upon our wide-reaching media relations and partnerships, we also hope to accelerate the individual careers of conservationists, by putting a spotlight on the history and progression of their work.
During the Awards Week, we worked closely with individual winners to identify key areas of their career journeys and project work to pitch exclusive stories to high profile UK media outlets and secure press interviews during their stay. We offered bespoke briefing and coaching on an interview-by-interview basis using our in-house PR expertise, and our partners Boffin Media delivered comprehensive training on maximising the impact of these new outreach opportunities.
Highlights of this year’s media coverage include:
Whitley Gold Award winner, Shivani Bhalla’s interviews with The Times, Financial Times and Sky News’s Climate Show, as well as her live appearance on BBC News:
Kazakhstan’s Albert Salemgareyev spoke to Geographical Magazine about bringing the saiga antelope back from the brink of extinction, and the new challenges that their increased population numbers have created, including competition with local communities over water resources.
Elsewhere, Madagascar’s Mamy Razafitsalama was interviewed for a piece published by the Washington Post about the vital need to put communities at the centre of conservation efforts.
Cameroon’s Serge Alexis Kamgang joined Gold Award winner Shivani Bhalla from Kenya for an interview on BBC World Service’s Focus on Africa about the plight of Africa’s lions.
Nepal’s Dr. Tulshi Laxmi Suwal highlighted the need to understand the threats facing the Chinese Pangolin in order to secure the animal’s future, speaking to Bloomberg and securing coverage from conservation news portal Mongabay.
While Yuliana Bedolla has been featured extensively by local media in Mexico, and was interviewed for a piece by BBC Mundo, as well as the UK’s BBC Wildlife magazine.
Kenyan newspapers The Nation and The Star featured Leonard Akwany, who was also interviewed with Yuliana for popular nature podcast Into The Wild.
A gallery from The Guardian shared the best photographs of our winners in action.
Increased visibility draws attention to the solutions our winners are working towards and encourages participation in projects on the ground. In addition, it helps winners to inspire philanthropic support from new sources, kickstarting a snowball effect that continues to bolster project funding.
As their profile is raised, winners also have the chance to connect with other conservationists and, with greater credibility, they are in a better position to influence environmental policy on a local, national and even international scale.
Find out more about the impact of winning a Whitley Award from our 2022 Communications Impact Report.
