{"id":959,"date":"2013-05-03T12:35:24","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T12:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/?p=959"},"modified":"2018-07-24T15:09:22","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T15:09:22","slug":"conservation-leader-from-kenya-wins-2013-whitley-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/2013\/05\/03\/conservation-leader-from-kenya-wins-2013-whitley-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservation leader from Kenya wins 2013 Whitley Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Whitley Awards celebrate 20 years\u00a0<\/b>of global conservation achievements<\/b><\/p>\n

HRH The Princess Royal yesterday (Thursday 2nd May) presented a Whitley Award, a prestigious international nature conservation prize, to Daniel Lejaroi Letoiye at a special ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in honour of his work to restore grasslands for the coexistence of Grevy\u2019s Zebra and free-ranging livestock in Kenya. Dan is studying MSc Conservation and Rural Development in the School of Anthropology and Conservation at Kent.<\/p>\n

Daniel Lejaroi Letoiye is one of eight exceptional individuals to have been awarded a share of prize funding worth \u00a3295,000 by the Whitley Fund for Nature, winning a Whitley Award donated by The LJC Fund in memory of Anthea and Lindsey Turner.\u00a0 Over many years, the arid and semi-arid grasslands of Africa have endured poor land use practices and the intensification of human activity resulting in land degradation.\u00a0 This in turn poses a major threat to the future security of wildlife, local people and their livestock. In 2004, Letoiye left teaching to pursue a career in conservation, and founded the Westgate Community Conservancy, an NGO which has focussed on promoting better land use management to reverse the decline in threatened wildlife including flagship species such as Grevy\u2019s zebra.<\/p>\n

Letoiye and his team have piloted a successful habitat restoration project: introducing planned grazing regimes, re-seeding of grasslands, and managing animal impact as well as the use of technology for monitoring and communication purposes. Most challenging of all has been finding ways to change the negative attitudes of local communities and outright opposition from government officials towards their conservation efforts. The Conservancy now plans to expand its habitat restoration efforts across the wider landscape, not only to ensure Grevy\u2019s zebra population numbers increase within their natural range, but also to foster ecological, socio-cultural and economic sustainability.<\/p>\n

HRH The Princess Royal, the charity\u2019s patron, says: \u201cThe secret of the Whitley Fund for Nature is that they find exceptional grassroots conservation leaders.\u00a0 Whitley Award winners hail from all over the world and come from a range of backgrounds, but they all have in common a fierce commitment and determination to make a real difference to local people and wildlife in their home countries.\u00a0 Every winner has a close connection with their community, as well as experience and an understanding of issues related to human-animal conflict, but they also know how to make an impact through practical solutions, engaging people and initiating change at government level. That’s a rare skill. Let’s face it, there are ‘experts’ out there, who don’t always have that skill, but the Whitley Award winners do.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, which marks the 20th<\/sup> anniversary of the Whitley Awards, saw a surge in applicants, with the highest number of entries yet to the scheme.\u00a0 First awarded in 1994, the Whitley Awards are presented annually to outstanding grassroots leaders in nature conservation across the developing world.\u00a0 Since then, the Whitley Fund for Nature has given almost \u00a310 million to conservation and recognised 160 conservation leaders in more than 70 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 20 years now, the Whitley Awards have pioneered effective ways to protect wild nature,\u201d says Sir David Attenborough, a Trustee of the Whitley Fund for Nature. \u201cPerhaps the greatest legacy of the charity is the growing network of winners themselves who represent some of the best conservation leaders in the world.\u00a0 The range of challenges the winners face is remarkable, the solutions are diverse; and together their reach is truly global.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other winners in the 2013 Whitley Awards are:<\/p>\n