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Conservation student wins £30,000 Whitley Award

HRH The Princess Royal (Princess Anne) recently presented a Whitley Award to Patrícia Medici, a PhD student in Biodiversity Management at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), for her work using lowland tapirs as ambassadors for grassroots nature conservation in Brazil.

Patrícia Medici was one of 11 people honoured at the Whitley Award ceremony held at the Royal Geographical Society in London. The ceremony was co-hosted by BBC broadcaster Martha Kearney and held in front of a 350-strong audience that included Sir David Attenborough, embassy representatives, leading scientists and celebrity conservation supporters.

The Whitley Award to Patrícia Medici recognises her work in the highly threatened Coastal Atlantic Forests of Brazil, where she uses her research on lowland tapirs to capture interest and support for active habitat conservation of benefit to many other wildlife species. One of the project's great achievements is its agro-forestry work with landless communities, who create forest corridors that link up fragmented wildlife habitats while also gaining an income from selling surplus saplings. Plans are now underway to roll out the model to other parts of Brazil, starting in the Pantanal, the world's largest freshwater wetland, from where Patrícia has just sent news of radio-collaring the first lowland tapir.

Patrícia Medici's prize includes a Whitley Award project grant of £30,000 plus the opportunity to apply for ongoing long-term project support through the Whitley Foundation for Nature.

Nigel Leader-Williams, Professor of Biodiversity Management and Director of DICE, said of the award: 'I am delighted at the news of this award to Patrícia, the fourth DICE student or alumnus to win a Whitley Award, now recognized as one of the world's top environmental prizes. Besides the prestige of the award, I am particularly pleased that this will offer Patrícia the chance to apply for longer term funding to continue her critical work beyond her PhD research at DICE .'

Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 10:57am 9 June 2008