The Whitley Fund for Nature has announced the six conservation leaders, from six different countries, receiving a 2020 Whitley Award of GBP 40,000 each in 1 year of project funding. In addition, the Whitley Gold Award of GBP 60,000 was presented to 2008 Whitley Award winner Patricia Medici of Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research), Brazil, for her work to conserve the lowland tapir in the Atlantic Forest, Pantanal, Cerrado and Amazon biomes. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Whitley Awards Ceremony, the flagship event of the UK-based charity, has been postponed until later in the year.

The 2020 Whitley Award Winners are Abdullahi Hussein Ali, Kenya (A landscape-level approach to conserve the hirola antelope); Gabriela Rezende, Brazil (Connecting populations of black lion tamarins in the Atlantic Forest); Phuntsho Thinley, Bhutan (Stepping up patrols to preserve the Endangered alpine musk deer); Jeanne Tarrant, South Africa (A country-wide strategy for South African amphibians); Rachel Ikemeh, Nigeria (Advancing participatory conservation action for rare chimpanzees); and Yokyok Hadiprakarsa, Indonesia (Saving the last stronghold of the helmeted hornbill).

To date, the charity has given GBP 17 million in conservation funding to more than 200 conservation leaders in over 80 countries. The Whitley Award was one of the first awards to be given in recognition of effective conservation leadership in the Global South. Twenty-seven years on, the need for recognition of grassroots leadership has never been stronger. The fund supports emerging country nationals whose work is rooted in community involvement and who are best placed to implement change on-the-ground, leading projects that are pragmatic, science-based and impactful.

The commitment of the Whitley Fund for Nature to conservation leaders is long-term, with winners benefiting from lifelong membership of a global network of Whitley Award alumni. This facilitates access to the Continuation Funding programme—further funding to scale up their work and bring about positive change for threatened species and communities. Over half of Whitley Award winners go on to win Continuation Funding grants of up to GBP 100,000 over up to 2 years. Depending on the charity's fundraising, Whitley Fund for Nature aims to give GBP 700,000 in Continuation Funding each year. A record-breaking GBP 1.2 million was given in 2019. Many winners become some of the most influential conservationists in their field, with projects making an impact from the grassroots to the national and international levels. For more information on the Whitley Fund for Nature, the Whitley Awards and the winning projects, visit whitleyaward.org.