Houston Zoo Conservation Partners Win Whitley Fund for Nature Awards

We’re thrilled to share that two of our longtime conservation partners, Dr. Farina Othman and Dr. Olivier Nsengimana were honored last week in London as award recipients by the Whitley Fund for Nature. Read excerpts from the award announcement here:

Dr. Olivier Nsengimana – Whitley Gold Award

Olivier previously won a Whitley Award in 2018 for a successful campaign to conserve his country’s emblematic grey crowned crane. Facing threats from the illegal pet trade and habitat destruction, these birds were heading towards extinction in Rwanda.

The team at Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA) transformed this situation, resulting in the wild crane population in the country quadrupling since their founding in 2015. RWCA successfully halted the illegal trade of Grey Crowned Cranes, and pioneered an impactful approach of engaging community members as Conservation Champions and co-creating nature-based solutions to mitigate habitat destruction.

However, without a strong transboundary collaboration, cranes may be well protected within Rwanda, but face increasing threats in neighboring countries. Olivier has set an ambitious plan to secure protection across East Africa for the iconic bird and its wetland habitat via transboundary cooperation and community collaboration.

Dr. Farina Othman – Whitley Award

The Lower Kinabatangan in Sabah is home to one of the world’s last populations of Bornean elephants, but habitat fragmentation and human-elephant conflict threaten their survival. With oil palm plantations covering much of the landscape, Farina and NGO Seratu Aatai are tackling the urgent need for coexistence strategies that integrate conservation with sustainable land use.