Sharing highlights from across UK and global press coverage so far
Media recognition plays a powerful role in raising international visibility of the award-winners’ work, and credible reporting can be a form of conservation in itself, unlocking opportunities with funders and stakeholders.
A Sunday Times feature in print and digital exclusively revealed Farwiza Farhan and HAkA as the 2026 Whitley Gold Award winner and served as reminder of Sir David Attenborough’s deep connection to Whitley Fund for Nature as well as his profound global impact on conservation. “Sir David’s legacy: the generations inspired to protect the world he has spent a career documenting” included Whitley Gold Award winners Charudutt Mishra and Rachel Graham and inspired a BBC World Service interview which was broadcast internationally from San Francisco to Darwin. Press coverage in Bloomberg, Time Magazine and Hello also helped to drive momentum of our tribute film to Sir David.
The 2026 Whitley Award winners have attracted top tier international as well as local media coverage including: a BBC Newshour interview with Farwiza, which has an audience reach of 85 million, as well as a feature in BBC Indonesia.
Moreangels Mbizah was interviewed by The Guardian, BBC Focus on Africa radio and TV and with her radio interview rebroadcast 75 times across the US, including on New York’s WNYC.
Barkha Subba and Parveen Shaikh were featured extensively in the press in India, including in India Today, Hindustan Times and The Hindu. Barkha was a guest on this week’s BBC World Service’s The Conversation, along with past Whitley Award winner Jeanne Tarrant, which has already been broadcast on primary public broadcasters ABC NewsRadio in Australia and Radio New Zealand.
The world’s leading Spanish-language news agency, Agencia EFE, interviewed Paola Sangolquí at the Royal Geographical Society and the resulting story was extensively picked up, including in Switzerland’s SWI Swissinfo. In Ecuador, she has been interviewed by media outlets including Teleamazonas TV, and national newspapers El Comercio and El Universo.
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Mongabay covered all six Whitley Award winners with a feature on Marina Kameni. She and Barkha will make appearances in an upcoming episode of BBC Radio 4 Rare Earth.
Issah Seidu has been interviewed by CNN and The Guardian and locally by News Ghana. Look out for his upcoming stories and on our other winners in The BBC Happy Pod, Agence France Presse and India’s Frontline Magazine.
The press showed up in force to the Awards ceremony with journalists from The Financial Times, BBC, The Times, The Guardian, New Scientist and Mongabay in attendance.
The Whitley Awards week in London included a recording with all the winners for our own How to Save It podcast which will be released later in the year and a bonus episode on Sir David Attenborough at 100, featuring past Whitley Award winners.
