Malaysia’s Dr Farina Othman Wins 2025 Whitley Award for Work with Bornean Elephants in Palm Oil Landscape

UK charity, the Whitley Fund for Nature, recognised Dr Farina Othman with a 2025 Whitley Award for her work to save the last 300 Bornean elephants in the east coast of Sabah State in Malaysia’s Borneo amid shrinking habitat for the world’s smallest elephant.

Charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, presented the £50,000 Whitley Award on 30 April at the Royal Geographical Society. The event was livestreamed to YouTube.

Farina _Othman _2025_Malaysia_Species_2 — Photo credit: Shervin Hess

“Seeing the struggles of elephants inspired me to dedicate my career to conservation.”

The founder and director of nonprofit, Seratu Aatai which means “solidarity,” Farina is addressing a rise in human-elephant conflict with palm oil stakeholders in Lower Kinabatangan. The elephant biologist is supporting companies and smallholders in implementing an “elephant friendly” approach to promote coexistence with the goal of creating a protected corridor network.

There are fewer than 1,000 Bornean elephants left in the wild in three population ranges across Sabah. A subspecies of the Asian elephant, they’ve lost 60 percent of their forest habitat in the last 40 years, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, driven by logging and cultivation of palm oil. The extensive fragmentation and connectivity loss has significantly restricted elephant movement. The IUCN listed them on its Red List as Endangered for the first time last year.

Farina is focused on a stronghold in the Lower Kinabatangan where much of the original forest has been altered for economic development. As elephants navigate this changing landscape, their presence can pose challenges for farmers working to protect their livelihoods.

The floodplain, shaped by the Kinabatangan River, includes large estates and small family farms that cut through a fragmented network of protected forests. Eleven large palm oil companies own 40 percent of the land in Lower Kinabatangan and there are about 150 independent palm oil smallholders.

“Human-wildlife conflict is often treated as a local issue, but it is a global challenge linked to habitat loss, climate change, and unsustainable development.”

Solutions that support both conservation and sustainable agriculture will be key to fostering coexistence: with the Whitley Award project, Farina and her team will focus on engaging independent palm oil smallholders – farmers with 100 acres or less – as well as large plantations. Their plan includes citizen science; addressing best practices around habitat connectivity, such as fencing; and contributing to an ongoing strategic conservation initiative, the proposed Kinabatangan Biosphere Reserve.

Seratu Aatai, which Farina created in 2018, is well known among local communities, and is the only conservation organisation in Sabah dedicated uniquely to the conservation of the Bornean elephant. Genetically distinct from all other elephant populations, males grow to 4 metres in height. Orangutans, Sunda clouded leopards, sun bears and leopard cats are among the species that will benefit from Farina’s project in the area, which is an ecotourist destination, known for its oxbow lakes and tropical forests.

Farina’s citizen science initiative will include plantation personnel in identifying and monitoring elephant movements on estates in the Lower Kinabatangan to foster a deeper understanding of their movements and behaviours. Stakeholders will be trained in how to identify individual elephants and assess herd dynamics. Farina, who is also a senior lecturer at University Malaysia Sabah, says the data will be made available to Sabah Wildlife Department and other government agencies.

The Whitley Award project will agree guidelines for best practices, and standard operating procedures for adoption by palm oil companies that align with conservation policies and legal frameworks. These will address habitat connectivity and include the establishment of corridors and fencing. A monitoring plan will track the effectiveness of these interventions. Large plantations will offer training sessions to educate smallholders on sustainable farming practices, such as effective fertilisation and pest controls to minimize the impact on the local environment.

Under Sabah Wildlife Enactment 1997, individuals from local communities can become honorary wildlife wardens, empowered to implement the wildlife conservation laws. Trained Honorary Wildlife Wardens will educate students at plantation schools on safe interactions with elephants and conflict mitigation strategies.

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NOTES TO EDITORS – WHITLEY FUND FOR NATURE

The Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a UK charity supporting grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South. Since its creation in 1993, it has channelled £24 million to 220 conservationists across 80 countries.

An early pioneer in the sector WFN was one of the first charities to channel funding directly to projects led by in-country nationals. Its rigorous application process identifies inspiring individuals who combine the latest science with community-based action.

WFN’s flagship prizes – Whitley Awards – are presented by charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, at a prestigious annual ceremony in London at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). Winners receive funding, training, and profile boost, including short films.

The 2025 Whitley Awards Ceremony took place on Wednesday 30th April at the RGS and streamed live on YouTube from 7:30pm BST. The 2025 Whitley Award winners are:

Dr Yara Barros from Brazil who is protecting jaguars by teaching communities to co-exist with the apex predator in Iguaçu National Park in the Atlantic Forest.
Dr Andrés Link from Colombia who is protecting brown spider monkeys in the lowland rainforests of central Colombia and reconnecting the species’ fragmented habitat through a network of private protected areas.
Dr Federico Kacoliris from Argentina who is expanding protection for the country’s most threatened amphibian, the El Rincón stream frog, and its river habitat in the volcanic Somuncura Plateau.
Reshu Bashyal from Nepal who is addressing the illegal trade in orchids and yews which are rapidly disappearing because of a boom in demand for their medicinal and ornamental value.
Rahayu Oktaviani from Indonesia who is ensuring continuous canopy for the Endangered Javan gibbon on Java, one of the most densely populated islands on earth.
Every year, a past Whitley Award winner is chosen to receive the Whitley Gold Award, worth £100,000, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to conservation. Joining the Judging Panel, the Whitley Gold Award recipient also acts as a mentor to Whitley Award winners and an international ambassador for conservation success. The 2025 Whitley Gold Award winner is Rwanda’s Dr Olivier Nsengimana, recognised for his leadership in rebuilding the Grey Crowned Crane in Rwanda and for an ambitious plan to secure protection across East Africa for the iconic bird and its wetland habitat.
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