UK charity, the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), recognised Indonesia’s Farwiza Farhan and NGO HAkA Foundation with the 2026 Whitley Gold Award to accelerate community protection of water catchments in the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra, where devastating storms and floods last year compounded more than three decades of deforestation.
“Lasting change is not driven by individuals alone, but by communities of people who choose every day to care, to protect, and to act.”
The 2.7 million hectare Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh province, which has the largest area of intact forest on the island of Sumatra, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the last place on earth where elephants, tigers, rhinos and orangutans coexist. It’s a source of water and livelihood for more than four million people.
Farwiza and her team will focus on forest preservation and flood prevention by addressing the growing hydrological challenge for a landscape that’s been degraded by illegal logging, mining and palm oil development since forestry concessions were granted in the 1990s. This has weakened the ecosystem’s natural ability to absorb water. Rainwater became torrential runoff that destroyed lives, homes and habitat when Cyclone Senyar struck in November. More than 1,000 people lost their lives, and about 400,000 people were displaced, mainly in Aceh.
Charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal presented the Whitley Gold Award on 29 April at the Royal Geographical Society. The event was livestreamed to YouTube. WFN Ambassador Sir David Attenborough said conservation work has never been more urgent. “We need the work of Whitley Award winners to succeed and to help them to whatever extent possible.”
With Gold Award funding, Farwiza and her team will monitor vulnerable watersheds in Aceh through advanced geospatial technologies, provide evidence for the government to inform policy and scale up local stewardship to galvanize public action through local communities, youth organisations and partner NGOs.
HAkA’s post disaster analysis indicates that more than 15,000 hectares of forest were lost in key water catchments, nearly four times the annual average deforestation rate. The team will focus on monitoring two of the biggest water catchments, Tamiang and Jambo Aye, which cover almost 1 million hectares and where downstream communities suffered some of the worst flooding and landslides because of an increase in deforestation upstream. The project will also include two additional watersheds which will be decided on after consulting with the communities.
While deforestation has slowed in Indonesia, rates of loss have increased in several areas, including in the Leuser Ecosystem, according to the World Resources Institute. Forest loss in the Leuser Ecosystem exceeded 28,000 hectares in 2025. That was about 22,000 hectares more than the previous year, according to HAkA’s data. This loss represents a significant increase in climate vulnerability for downstream communities who depend on the forest to regulate floods, stabilize soil and protect livelihoods.
With the Gold Award, Farwiza’s team will also push for improved management policies to futureproof Tamiang and Jambo Aye. They will combine satellite data from Global Forest Watch and Planet which provide daily updates on deforestation, as well as data from HAkA’s drone based aerial surveys to capture detailed landscape conditions, to provide evidence to the government and empower local communities to take action. That will include an Aceh Flood Monitoring map to record the increasing incidence of flood events.
In the decade since she won a Whitley Award in 2016, Farwiza and HAkA – the NGO she co-founded with Badrul Irfan in 2012 – have gained international recognition for their grassroots activism and work to protect the Leuser Ecosystem with Farwiza featured in Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary Before the Flood.
Mobilising community campaigns, HAkA’s successes include (i) halting the construction of a megadam which would have drowned 4,000 hectares of the pristine primary forest home of the Critically Endangered Sumatran elephant and which is also prime habitat for orangutans. (ii) a campaign against another company resulted in the cancellation of a permit to mine 1,000 hectares of forest and (iii) HAkA scored a major victory against a palm oil company, PT Kallista Allam, which after a decade long battle, started to pay millions of dollars in fines for illegally burning 1,000 hectares of forest. This followed years of pressure from HAkA and civil organisations that continuously engaged with national governments and judicial institutions, local government and the wider public.
Other initiatives include the launch of a pioneering Woman Forest Defenders programme in three villages to train women’s groups in forest monitoring and providing paralegal training for 200 women in local communities to defend their home.
Following the 2025 floods, HAkA has stepped in to provide emergency disaster relief for remote communities which has included logistics, clean water and access to Starlink satellite internet for communications. The team plans to collaborate more with Whitley Award winners from Indonesia, to share knowledge and expand a collective network. WFN has funded 16 conservationists across Indonesia.
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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 £26 million to over 230 conservationists working across 84 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 2026 Whitley Awards Ceremony took place on Wednesday 29 April at the RGS and streamed live to YouTube. The other 2026 Whitley Award winners are:
- Dr Marina Kameni from Cameroon who is reviving endemic amphibian populations in Southwest Cameroon, a global hotspot for threatened amphibians, including the world’s largest frog.
- Dr Moreangels Mbizah from Zimbabwe who is expanding a coexistence model of conservation in northern Zimbabwe that allows the movement of lions between protected areas and community land.
- Dr Paola Sangolquí from Ecuador who is protecting the nesting sites of the Critically Endangered Galápagos Petrel from invasive species.
- Dr Issah Seidu from Ghana who is saving guitarfish along Ghana’s western coastline and advancing plans to create the country’s first Locally Managed Marine Area.
- Parveen Shaikh from India who is expanding protection for the Indian Skimmer and her model of community-led riverine bird conservation to Prayagraj in the Ganga Basin.
- Dr Barkha Subba from India who is leading the first grassroots movement to protect the Himalayan salamander and its fragile wetland habitat in the Darjeeling Himalaya, West Bengal.
FOR INTERVIEW REQUESTS AND INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Carol Roussel, Head of Media, Whitley Fund for Nature
T: 07379 019 804
Josephine Higgins, Head of Communications, Whitley Fund for Nature
