Presenting the Whitley Gold Award, the top honour, was Charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, in a poignant ceremony held at the Royal Geographical Society on 1st May. The occasion marked three decades since the inception of the Whitley Award and 25 years of HRH The Princess’ dedicated patronage.

Purnima founded the Hargila Army, becoming a beacon of hope for Assam’s endangered storks. Recognising the imminent threat faced by the majestic Hargila stork, she embarked on a mission to transform perceptions and safeguard their dwindling numbers.

The stork plays a crucial role in Assam’s wetlands, constituting over 15 percent of the state’s landmass. Unfortunately, wetlands are experiencing unprecedented degradation, disappearing at a rate three times faster than forests globally, as reported by the United Nations. These habitats serve as essential refuges for migratory birds and diverse wildlife species while also providing vital protection against the escalating threats of heavy monsoon flooding, especially in the face of unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change.

Stork Sisters

Utilising an innovative approach, Purnima rallied rural women, fondly known as the “stork sisters,” to champion the cause of Hargila conservation. Together, they not only protected nesting sites but also rehabilitated the stork’s image from a cultural taboo to a cherished emblem of local pride. Today, Purnima’s army of stork sisters spans 10,000 strong, transcending borders to encompass Bihar and Cambodia.

In the wake of her relentless advocacy, Purnima’s initiatives have yielded remarkable results, with nest numbers soaring from 27 to 250 in just over a decade. The project has safeguarded over 500 stork chicks, planted 45,000 saplings, and raised awareness through innovative campaigns, including baby showers and village-to-village visits.

With the Whitley Gold Award as her beacon, Purnima is poised to amplify her impact further, aiming to double the global stork population to 5,000 by 2030. Her ambitious agenda includes expanding conservation efforts, empowering women, and fostering collaborative networks to drive transformative change in biodiversity conservation.

Sir David Attenborough, an Ambassador for WFN and a steadfast advocate for conservation, emphasized that the expanding cohort of recipients embodies some of the globe’s most esteemed conservationists. He remarked, “Whitley Award winners combine knowing how to respond to crises yet also bring communities and wider audiences with them.”

Rewilding

Purnima’s involvement in the Rewilding Academy is instrumental in driving forward its mission of fostering ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation. With her extensive experience in community-driven conservation initiatives and her pioneering efforts in species recovery programs, she brings invaluable insights and expertise to the Academy’s educational programs.

As a champion of women’s empowerment and community engagement, Purnima plays a pivotal role in developing curriculum modules that emphasise the importance of local participation and sustainable development practices. Through her leadership and dedication, she inspires and empowers future conservation leaders to adopt innovative approaches in rewilding and ecosystem restoration, ensuring a brighter future for both people and wildlife.

The post Purnima Devi Barman Honoured with 2024 Whitley Gold Award for Courageous Efforts to Save Greater Adjutant Storks appeared first on Rewilding Academy.

Relive the Virtual Gala from here, and hear from our celebrity correspondents, experts, special music acts, and restoration leaders directly from our planet’s frontiers of hope. The Gala included never-before-seen video footage and voices from restoration leaders at 10 flagship sites.

The ten selected Flagship Initiatives were launched at the margins of the high-level segment of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP15) during Restoration Day on 13 December. 

Speakers and Presenters

• Inger Andersen – Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme 
• Maria Helena Semedo – Deputy Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization 
• Dr. Jane Goodall – Primatologist and United Nations Messenger of Peace 
• Jason Momoa – Actor, UN Environment Programme Advocate for Life Below Water 
• Edward Norton – Actor, Conservationist, UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity 
• Ellie Goulding – Singer & Songwriter, UN Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador 
• Filipe Toledo – World Surf League Championship Tour Surfer and 2022 World Champion 
• Frida Amani – Hip-Hop Artist, Environmentalist, Media Personality 
• Massimo Bottura – Chef, Food Systems Activist, UN Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador 
• Li Bingbing – Actress, UN Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador for China 
• Sir Partha Dasgupta – Economist and UN Champion of the Earth 
• Nimsdai Purja – UN Environment Programme Mountain Hero 
• Gary Bencheghib – River activist and influencer 
• Bastille – A special announcement and music video by the band and restoration supporters
• Julian Marley – A music video premiere by the musician, producer and humanitarian 

Hosted by National Geographic presenter and wildlife filmmaker Malaika Vaz

The inaugural World Restoration Flagships are:

Trinational Atlantic Forest Pact

The Atlantic Forest once covered a swath of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. But it has been reduced to fragments by centuries of logging, agricultural expansion and city building. 

Hundreds of organizations are active in the decades-long effort to protect and restore the forest in all three countries. Their initiatives are creating wildlife corridors for endangered species, like the jaguar and the golden lion tamarin, securing water supplies for people and nature, countering and building resilience to climate change, and creating thousands of jobs.

Some 700,000 hectares have already been restored with the 2030 target at 1 million hectares and the 2050 target at 15 million hectares.

Abu Dhabi Marine Restoration

Safeguarding the world’s second-largest dugong population is a goal of the drive in the United Arab Emirates to restore beds of seagrass – the vegetarian dugong’s preferred food – coral reefs and mangroves along the Gulf coast.

The project in the emirate of Abu Dhabi will improve conditions for many other plants and animals, including four species of turtle and three kinds of dolphin. Local communities will benefit from the revival of some of the 500 species of fish, as well as greater opportunities for eco-tourism.

Abu Dhabi wants to ensure its coastal ecosystems are resilient in the face of global warming and rapid coastal development in what is already one of the world’s warmest seas.

Some 7,500 hectares of coastal areas have already been restored with another 4,500 hectares under restoration for 2030.

Great Green Wall for Restoration and Peace

The Great Green Wall is an ambitious initiative to restore savannas, grasslands and farmlands across Africa to help families and biodiversity cope with climate change and keep desertification from further threatening already-vulnerable communities.

Launched by the African Union in 2007, this flagship seeks to transform the lives of millions in the Sahel region by creating a belt of green and productive landscapes across 11 countries.

The 2030 goals of the Great Green Wall are to restore 100 million hectares, sequester 250 million tons of carbon and create 10 million jobs.

While the Great Green Wall targets degraded land stretching right across the continent, the UN Decade flagship has a particular focus on Burkina Faso and Niger. 

Ganges River Rejuvenation

Restoring the health of the Ganges, India’s holy river, is the focus of a major push to cut pollution, rebuild forest cover and bring a wide range of benefits to the 520 million people living around its vast basin.

Climate change, population growth, industrialization and irrigation have degraded the Ganges along its arcing 2,525-kilometre course from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal.

Launched in 2014, the government-led Namami Gange initiative is rejuvenating, protecting and conserving the Ganges and its tributaries, reforesting parts of the Ganges basin and promoting sustainable farming. It also aims to revive key wildlife species, including river dolphins, softshell turtles, otters, and the hilsa shad fish. 

Investment by the Indian government is up to $4.25 billion so far. The initiative has the involvement of 230 organisations, with 1,500km of river restored to date. Additionally, there has been 30,000 hectares of afforestation so far, with a 2030 goal of 134,000 hectares.

Multi-Country Mountain Initiative 

Mountain regions face unique challenges. Climate change is melting glaciers, eroding soils and driving species uphill – often toward extinction. The water that mountains supply to farms and cities in the plains below is becoming unreliable.

The initiative – based in Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda and Rwanda – showcases how projects in three diverse regions are using restoration to make mountain ecosystems more resilient so they can support their unique wildlife and deliver vital benefits to people.

Uganda and Rwanda are home to one of only two remaining populations of the endangered mountain gorilla. Thanks to the protection of their habitat, gorilla numbers have doubled in the last 30 years. In Kyrgyzstan, herders are managing grasslands more sustainably so that they provide better food for both livestock and Asiatic ibex. Snow leopards are slowly bouncing back. In Serbia, authorities are expanding tree cover and revitalizing pastures in two protected areas. Brown bears have returned to the forests, where restoration is also helping ecosystems recover from wildfires.

Small Island Developing States Restoration Drive

Focused on three small island developing states – Vanuatu, St Lucia and Comoros – this flagship is scaling up ridge-to-reef restoration of unique ecosystems and tapping blue economic growth to help island communities rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Goals include a reduction in pressures on coral reefs, which are vulnerable to storm damage, so that fish stocks can recover. Ecosystems under restoration also include seagrass beds, mangroves and forests.

As well as creating a “toolbox” of solutions for sustainable island development, this flagship aims to amplify the voice of island nations facing rising sea levels and intensifying storms as a result of climate change.

Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative

Like many grasslands around the world, the vast steppes of Central Asia are in decline due to factors like overgrazing, conversion to arable land and the shifting climate.

In Kazakhstan, the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative has been working since 2005 to restore the steppe, semi-desert and desert ecosystems within the historic range of the Saiga, a once abundant antelope critically endangered by hunting and habitat loss.

In fact, the Saiga population had plunged to 50,000 in 2006 but rebounded to 1.3 million in 2022. As well as reviving and protecting the steppe, the initiative has helped conserve wetlands that are a vital stopover for an estimated 10 million migratory birds. Among the key bird species are the sociable lapwing, the red-breasted goose, the white-headed duck and the Siberian crane.

Central American Dry Corridor

Exposed to heatwaves and unpredictable rainfall, the ecosystems and peoples of the Central American Dry Corridor are especially vulnerable to climate change. As recently as 2019, a fifth year of drought left 1.2 million people in the region needing food aid.

Tapping traditional farming methods to build the productivity of landscapes, including their biodiversity, is at the heart of this restoration flagship covering six countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

For example, agroforestry systems integrating tree cover with crops like coffee, cocoa and cardamom can boost soil fertility and water availability while sustaining much of the biodiversity of the original tropical forest.

By 2030, the goal is to have 100,000 hectares under restoration and create 5,000 permanent jobs.

Building with Nature in Indonesia

Demak, a low-lying coastal community on Indonesia’s main island of Java, has been plagued by erosion, flooding and land loss caused by the removal of mangroves for aquaculture ponds, land subsidence and infrastructure.

Rather than replanting mangrove trees, this innovative World Restoration Flagship has built fence-like structures with natural materials along the shore to calm waves and trap sediment, creating conditions for mangroves to rebound naturally. The total length of permeable structures built is 3.4 km and 199 ha of mangroves have been restored.

In return for letting mangroves regenerate, farmers have been schooled in sustainable techniques that have increased their shrimp production. With mangroves providing habitat for a plethora of marine organisms, fishers have also seen their near-shore catches improve.

Shan-Shui Initiative in China

This ambitious initiative combines 75 large-scale projects to restore ecosystems, from mountains to coastal estuaries, across the world’s most populous nation.

Launched in 2016, the initiative results from a systematic approach to restoration. Projects dovetail with national spatial plans, work at the landscape or watershed scale, include agricultural and urban areas as well as natural ecosystems, and seek to boost multiple local industries. All include goals for biodiversity.

Examples include the Oujiang River Headwaters Project in Zhejiang province, which integrates scientific knowledge with traditional farming methods, like slope terracing and combining crops with fish- and duck-rearing, to make land use more sustainable.

Some 3.5 million hectares have been restored so far. The 2030 target is 10 million hectares.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration runs until 2030, which is also the deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Without halting and reversing the degradation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, 1 million species are at risk of extinction. Scientists say restoring only 15 per cent of ecosystems in priority areas and thereby improving habitats can cut extinctions by 60 per cent.

The UN Decade addresses all three Rio Conventions and encourages its partners in integrating climate forecasts and a different climate future in their restoration efforts.

There has never been a more urgent need to revive damaged ecosystems than now. Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet and its people. Ecosystem restoration will only succeed if everyone joins the #GenerationRestoration movement to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide.

Sources: UNEP

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