Whitley Award Winners Mobilise Action to Save Wildlife, from Brazil to Bhutan
Brazil Threat Landscape Forest, Fernanda Abra | ©Whitley Fund For Nature
Hargila, Purnima Barman | ©Carla Rhodes
Words by Whitley Fund For Nature
Covered by Conker Nature Magazine
First Published: 01st May 2024 at 8:00PM GMT
India’s Dr Purnima Barman Wins Gold for Galvanising “Stork Sisters” Movement in Assam
Purima Barman, India Community | ©PhotoProd
UK charity the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is recognising seven outstanding conservationists with 2024 Whitley Awards for leading their communities in saving some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems and for their innovative solutions to the threats to nature in India, Brazil, Bhutan, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Cameroon and Nepal.
India’s Dr Purnima Devi Barman will receive the 2024 Whitley Gold Award of £100,000 for galvanising a movement of more than ten thousand local women to save the Greater Adjutant Stork and its wetlands habit in Assam. The wildlife biologist has transformed the outlook for the scavenger bird and the local women, known as “stork sisters,” who have become conservation leaders.
Sir David Attenborough, WFN Ambassador and long-term supporter of the charity, said winners represent some of the most impressive conservationists in the world and they “combine knowing how to respond to crises yet also bring communities and wider audiences with them.”
Charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, is presenting the awards to Purnima and the six new winners on May 1 at the Royal Geographical Society in a ceremony that marks the 30th anniversary of the very first award. The event will be livestreamed to YouTube. The new winners will receive £50,000 each to fund their work.
The winners are mobilising action within their communities to protect biodiversity and mitigate the impacts from rising temperatures, wildfires and flooding in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change. They join a network of 220 Whitley Award alumni who play a powerful role in shaping the global environmental agenda and who have influenced more than 200 international and national policies over three decades. The winners are:
DR PURNIMA DEVI BARMAN
WILDLIFE CONSERVATIONIST | 📍 INDIA
India’s Dr Purnima Devi Barman will receive the 2024 Whitley Gold Award of £100,000 for galvanising a movement of more than ten thousand local women to save the Greater Adjutant Stork and its wetlands habit in Assam. The wildlife biologist has transformed the outlook for the scavenger bird and the local women, known as “stork sisters,” who have become conservation leaders.
Read Purnima story here.
NAOMI LONGA
MARINE BIOLOGIST | 📍 PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Marine Biologist Naomi Longa and her all-female team of local and indigenous divers and snorkellers who are using AI to help safeguard the coral reefs in their native Papua New Guinea. The women are scaling up a network of locally managed marine areas in local waters in the Coral Triangle, home to 76 percent of the world’s coral reef species.
Read Naomi’s story here.
ARISTIDE KAMLA
MARINE SCIENTIST | 📍 CAMEROON
Cameroon’s Aristide Kamla, the country’s foremost expert in manatees, who is saving African manatee habitat from invasive freshwater ferns which blanketed the surface of Lake Ossa. Using methods of biological control he is restoring manatee habitat and has trained a network of fishers to report sightings of the elusive marine mammal.
Read Aristide’s story here.
FERNANDA ABRA
ROAD ECOLOGIST | 📍 BRAZIL
Fernanda Abra from Brazil, where the Waimiri-Atroari people helped her to build low-cost canopy bridges over the BR-174 highway in the Amazon rainforest. This pioneering work is restoring connectivity for tree-dwelling mammals and protecting them from road collisions. The researcher plans to scale up to build bridges across the world’s most biodiverse country.
Read Fernanda’s story here.
KUENZANG DORJI
WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST | 📍 BHUTAN
Bhutan’s Kuenzang Dorji, a wildlife biologist, who is “restoring harmony” between people and primates - local farmers and Endangered Gee’s golden langurs. Traditionally considered good omens, the monkeys are now raiding crops as climate change drives a shift in their behaviour. Kuenzang will train citizen scientists in how to collect primate data that supports long term monitoring in the ecologically fragile Himalayan Ranges.
Read Kuenzang’s story here.
LEROY IGNACIO
WILDLIFE CONSERVATIONIST | 📍 GUYANA
Guyana’s Leroy Ignacio, a conservationist and Indigenous Makushi, who is stepping up efforts to protect the Endangered Red Siskin songbird as Guyana, the world’s fastest growing economy, navigates unprecedented change. Leroy is leading his team in expanding a conservation zone that five indigenous communities created on their land to protect the small finch.
Read Leroy’s story here.
RAJU ACHARYA
WILDLIFE CONSERVATIONIST | 📍 NEPAL
Nepal’s Raju Acharya, who spearheaded a 10-year government plan to protect owls that harnesses the proactive participation of communities in central Nepal, home to ten ethnic groups. The country’s leading owl specialist, Raju is bolstering protection in central Nepal, where 19 of the country’s 23 owl species are found.
Read Raju’s story here.
Whitley Award winners are playing a pivotal role in global efforts to protect 30 percent of the planet’s land and sea by 2030. As many as five of the 23 targets set in the landmark global deal for nature agreed in 2022 recognise the essential role that local and indigenous people play in protecting biodiversity. World leaders will provide updates on their commitments for 30x30 when they meet for the COP16 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Colombia in October.
The winners will take part in a series of events in London to amplify their achievements for people, wildlife and climate. In addition to the £50,000 in project funding, the Whitley Fund for Nature will provide each winner with communications and speech training, and introduce them to a network of Whitley award-winning conservation leaders across more than 80 countries.