Looking back on a year of remarkable achievements by Whitley Award winners
Reflecting on the conservation successes of 2024, a clear theme emerges: the power of collaborative, innovative, and community-driven efforts to protect our planet’s most fragile ecosystems. Together with their teams, Whitley Award winners demonstrate how local action can drive global change, inspiring hope for the future of the natural world.
From comebacks to legal wins, here are just a few of the latest achievements from our network of Whitley Award winners.
COMEBACKS
Kini Roesler, scientific director of Aves Argentinas, confirmed the return of the Hooded Grebe – endemic to the high plateaus of Patagonian Argentina – to lakes where they had not been seen for more than five years. Heavy snowfall during the winter season led to the recovery of key lakes after several, including the “El Cervecero” lake in Patagonia National Park, had been dry, or almost dry, since 2018. The birds were detected in 24 of the 300 lakes surveyed in an area spanning more than 42,000 km2.
Five primary lakes were found to have significant presence of water milfoil – essential for Hooded Grebe nests – raising expectations for new colonies to form in early summer 2025. As part of “Programa Patagonia”, the 2021 Whitley Award winner and his team are intensifying efforts to control invasive species which threaten the future of the Critically Endangered water bird, famous for its elaborate “tango” courtship dance.
Dalmatian Pelicans formed a new breeding colony in Bulgaria, the fourth in the country. This is the first time in 80 years that the species has nested in the vast Mandra-Poda wetland complex. The site, which is now home to 23 nests, is close to the city of Burgas in Southeastern Bulgaria.
It comes just one year after 2009 Whitley Award winner Emil Todorov’s team and volunteers built floating platforms, or artificial islands, for the birds. The new colony adds to populations at Lake Srebarna, Persin Island and the Kalmok-Brushlen Protected Area. Emil, Chair of the Board at the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, started his work at a time when there was just one colony in Bulgaria for the bird.
REINTRODUCTION
Albert Salemgareyev and his team at the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) were instrumental in the reintroduction of Przewalski’s wild horses to the Kazakh steppe grasslands. They are the last genetically wild horse on Earth and are believed to have been domesticated more than 5,000 years ago. Once roaming the vast central Asia steppe, they vanished from Kazakhstan over a century ago. The release of the seven individuals, from Munich and Prague zoos, is part of a wider vision to restore fully functional ecosystems in Kazakhstan’s steppe grasslands.
Albert won a 2023 Whitley Award for his efforts to restore Saiga antelope populations across Kazakhstan. The Przewalski’s horse feeds on a broader selection of grasses than the saiga, helping to redistribute seeds, and can dig for water in deep snow or dry riverbeds, helping other species to survive. ACBK is part of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative which was recognised with an Earthshot Prize in 2024.
WINNER COLLABORATIONS
Whitley Award winning raptor experts Dr Munir Virani and conservation biologist Jayson Ibanez collaborated on the translocation of two Philippine Eagles from Mindanao as part of a programme to release 18 eagles to Leyte to re-establish a population on the island. The Philippines’ national bird, which is one of the largest eagles in the world, had not been seen on Leyte since a 2013 super typhoon.
A 2015 Whitley Award winner, Jayson is operations director at the Philippine Eagle Foundation, which led on the translocation. The initiative is supported by a three-year funding commitment from Mohammed Bin Zayed Raptor Conservation Fund of which Kenya’s Munir, a 2018 Whitley Award winner, is chief executive.
Community-driven conservation has been key to the success of the Black Lion Tamarin Conservation Programme in Brazil, where the population of the primate, which was considered extinct for six decades, now numbers 1,800 across 20 locations in the state of São Paulo.
Originally launched by 1999 Whitley Award winner Claudio Padua, the programme, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2024, is now led by 2020 Whitley Award winner Gabriela Rezende. Her team coordinated the translocation of five individuals to supplement a fragile, local population in the Pontal do Paranapanema region. The tamarins are part of the sixth translocation under the programme, which works on habitat restoration in tandem with population management.
NEW CORRIDOR FOR LEOPARDS
Anjali Watson and her team expanded their Corridors for Conservation initiative in Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands, connecting the fragmented habitat of leopards and wildlife in an area famous for its tea plantations. Anjali, together with Dr Andrew Kittle, agreed on the new Elbedda Ridge Corridor with a regional plantation company which owns seven estates. The 18km2 ridge line will connect to the original corridor and run adjacent to the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary, one of the largest sanctuaries in the country.
The 2018 Whitley Award winner says that camera trap studies have already recorded 19 leopards using the new corridor as well as their prey: mammals including barking and sambar deer, toque macaque, Purple-faced Langur monkeys, and pangolin. A total of 28 hectares of degraded habitat are under restoration, underpinned by the establishment of five plant nurseries in the area.
RARE CHIMPANZEE
A rare population of chimpanzee was captured on video for the first time in the Nigerian lowland forest’s Ise Forest Conservation Area. This marks a significant milestone for the SW/Niger Delta Forest Project, which is led by founder and director Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh. Uniquely different from known chimpanzee subspecies, the foraging male chimpanzee was captured on footage obtained from the tree canopy within just two days of a major camera trapping effort.
Established in 2021, the conservation area covers 3,300 ha located in Ise-Ekiti, Ekiti State, southwestern Nigeria and is the result of several years of chimpanzee-focused surveys that revealed populations found in southwestern Nigeria form a distinct group. The 2020 Whitley Award winner’s SW/Niger Delta Forest Project is focused on helping this newly discovered, genetically different, population rebound from the brink of extinction.
LEGAL WINS
Dr Pablo Borboroglu achieved a groundbreaking victory for penguins and environmental justice in Argentina resulting in the country’s first conviction for ecocide. The win strengthens protection for wildlife and the habitat of the biggest Magellanic penguin colony in the world. Pablo’s evidence was crucial in a trial initially brought by the provincial government against a rancher who destroyed part of a penguin colony within the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve “Patagonia Azul”, in the province of Chubut. The rancher, who used a bulldozer while penguins were still in their nests in 2021, was unanimously found guilty by all three judges.
The conservation milestones of the 2018 Whitley Gold Award winner and the Global Penguin Society which he founded, were instrumental in the trial, providing a clear assessment of the biodiversity hotspot. The Global Penguin Society coordinated the management plan for this colony, spearheaded the creation of the marine protected area, and established the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The governor has since announced plans to expand the protected area by 1,000 hectares, benefiting 180,000 penguin pairs. A provincial law to protect all wildlife is in progress, alongside proposals to include environmental crimes in the national penal code and to establish an environmental prosecutor’s office in Patagonia.
Farwiza Farhan and her team at Yayasan HAkA scored a major victory when a palm oil company paid fines for the illegal burning of a key forest habitat of the Sumatran orangutan in Indonesia’s Leuser ecosystem. The battle lasted more than a decade against PT Kallista Alam which burned more than 1000 hectares of forest in the Tripa peat swamp. While legal challenges were ongoing, the company burned the forest and launched its own legal challenge to a verdict of environmental destruction in a case brought by the Ministry of Environment.
After years of pressure from Farwiza, a 2016 Whitley Award winner, HAkA and civil society organisations that continuously engaged with national government and judicial institutions, local government, local communities and the wider public, PT Kallista Alam completed payment of the 114 billion-rupiah fine (£5.6 million).
UKRAINE
Dr Bohdan Prots in Lviv, western Ukraine, is working on a project backed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to assess the significant environmental damage from the prolonged three-year war. The 2007 Whitley Award winner says there is no globally recognised methodology for such assessments. He is designing a mobile laboratory which can take and measure atmospheric air, water and soil samples.
The assessment will be vital for restoring Ukraine’s environment to benefit wildlife, landscapes, and people. This will include land remediation and demining, the revitalisation of destroyed forests and nature reserves, and the establishment of new national parks and conservation areas, as well as the protection of rivers, lakes, and marine zones.
GLOBAL STAGE
Dr Fernando Trujillo played a pivotal role at COP16, hosted by his native Colombia – speaking at nine events, including on the success of a government-backed plan to protect South American river dolphins which includes Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. Fernando, who is based in the Amazon, led a landmark 11-country agreement to protect river dolphins globally and is the coordinator for the Conservation Management Plan (CMP) in South America.
It was a big year for the marine biologist, and 2007 Whitley Award winner, who opened a research centre in Puerto Nariño in the Amazon, the original site of the field station that he created at age 19. He also became an ambassador for the Minamata agreement to speak out on mercury poisoning which, in the Amazon, results from illegal mining for gold. This is toxic to dolphins, wildlife and people living along the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. The Guardian interviewed Fernando for a feature about Colombia’s nature defenders which included Dr Angela Maldonado, Rosamira Guillen and Sandra Bessudo, who also attended COP16.
Eleven Whitley Award winners attended COP16, with several speaking in the governmental Blue Zone. They included: Dr Ian Little from South Africa; Dr Alberto Gomez-Mejia from Colombia; Dr Diego Amorocho from Colombia; Dominique Bikaba from DRC; Yoki Hadiprakarsa from Indonesia; Dr Ali Nawaz from Pakistan and Dr Alifereti Tawake from Fiji.
