Leticia Benavalli

Since March 2023, Leticia has been working as CEO of the Pró-Onça Institute, an organisation dedicated to empowering women and youth in science, while leading initiatives for the conservation of large carnivores and their prey. In May 2023, she was awarded funding from the Conservation Leadership Programme which has allowed her to lead a project focused on the conservation of medium and large mammals through community based initiatives. The project also aims to mitigate climate change and empower local people in conservation action. Leticia has also worked as a freelance consultant Biologist for the Socio-Environmental Management Association of the Triangulo Mineiro region in Brazil. In this role, she was responsible for managing projects focused on conservation biology, empowerment of civil society and sustainable project development. She is keen to raise awareness and galvanise support among local communities living near her field sites, amassing a group of 30 local female volunteers to help spread the message of conservation and encourage ecotourism. Leticia has interviewed local landowners to gather information about their perception towards large carnivores and encouraged ‘conflict-mitigation’ measures to help protect their livestock from predation without harming the predators. This work will be essential to keeping these animals in existence.

FFI Panel Comments: Leticia’s clear focus on helping the mammals and local communities in the Brazilian Cerrado is admirable, and she has made great strides in allowing for both the protection of wildlife and a peaceful coexistence between predators and local farmers.

Morokot Long

Morokot began volunteering with the Free Bears Programme at the Phnom Tamao Zoo before graduating with a degree in Environmental Science in 2021. In addition to her academic studies, Morokot established and led a project called ‘Education Date Out’ which encouraged young people across Cambodia to acquire knowledge and skills in environmental problem solving and empowered them to contribute to sustainable development and the protection of wildlife. Morokot joined FFI as an intern in 2021 and became a full-time research assistant. She has since supported the Cambodian Government in the development of Cambodia’s first National Marine Park. Morokot has increased her marine expertise, becoming a professional rescue diver with over 300 dives under her belt and a coral reef and seagrass surveyor. She is not only playing a key role in marine habitat monitoring across the Cambodian coast but also becoming an ambassador for marine conservation.  

Tin Zar Ni Win

Tin joined the Conservation Leadership Programme as an intern for a year where the project’s aim was to preserve the mangrove forest and reduce the mangrove exploitation. From this, she aims to become a young leader and researcher on conservation for the future. The project involved the baseline assessment of socioeconomics of the coastal communities to carry out surveys on the biodiversity and soil samples to assess the environment. Tin led the survey team in 2021 with the aim of researching for the Indawgyi Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment including eco-system-based adaptation measures. The conservation works that Tin covers includes education and awareness to local villagers and students to share her knowledge, facilitating community operations, and the supervision and management of waste management and sanitation in the Indawgyi region of Myanmar.  

Rafid Shidqi

Rafid is an up-and-coming marine conservationist with a great deal of experience working with marine species throughout Indonesia. He especially works to protect endangered shark and sting ray species, while finding sustainable solutions for communities who depend on the sharks for their livelihood.

Rafid worked with several conservation organisations before receiving a Master’s degree in Coastal Science and Policy at the University of California. He has conducted extensive ecological surveys to investigate the critical habitat of sting rays and helped to design and lead a project aiming to educate the local community. Rafid was awarded the Future-Conservationist Award in 2018 which allowed him to lead a project aiming to identify and address drivers of decline for endangered sharks. His project gained the attention of the Alor Regency Government leading them to place regulations on fishing and the research has contributed towards future conservation policy.

Rafid has also received honourable mention for Ocean Discovery in the US and was recently one of the youngest nominees for a Pew Marine Fellowship.

Natia Javakhishvili

Natia is a young conservationist who has achieved stunning success since beginning her conservation career, with her main motivation being saving the Imperial Eagle which is a threatened species and she has also inspired others to take up the cause. Natia’s first experience with conservation was in 2014 when she began volunteering with the Society for Nature Conservation (SABUKO), a BirdLife partner in Georgia. She was promoted to Chief Specialist of Environmental Education, where the Imperial Eagle became her priority. In 2015, she was awarded with a ‘Future Conservationist award’ by the Conservation Leadership Programme allowing her to lead a project focused on conserving this species. She used satellite telemetry and GPS loggers to track the life cycles of juveniles, finding that poaching, nest destruction and pylon electrocution were the major threats needing to be addressed. Natia found that the major breeding habitat of the Imperial Eagle had become degraded and her team developed a new proposal in 2017 which won a landscape restoration grant under the Endangered Landscapes Programme, allowing her team to scale up their work to help other important species in the area. 

In recognition of her success, Natia became the CEO of SABUKO in 2017 allowing her to become credited with leading SABUKO to become financially sustainable and growing the organisation from a few individuals to 15 staff members and attracting donors to help sustain conservation in Georgia. SABUKO currently operates alongside 4 government departments and is responsible for building the first volunteer network for nature protection in Georgia. Natia was also elected to the head of the department of Education at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Nature Resources of Georgia. Moving forward she aims to bring greater media attention to conservation in Georgia and neighbouring countries, while working with national governments to develop a species action plan and build strong biodiversity laws.