Regina Lapon

Regina Lapon is an indigenous woman of the Maya Tribe and her conservation journey began when she worked in a nickel mining company and witnessed firsthand the environmental damage caused by extractive industries. Her experiences shaped her resolve to return to her ancestral land and build a future rooted in sustainability and local empowerment, which inspired the building of her homestay which gives tourists the opportunity to stay in a mangrove forest. She worked hard to develop her biodiversity field skills without any formal conservation education and encouraged the surrounding community to get involved with the project. Regina has spoken out against wildlife poaching and trafficking, and encourages her community to view conservation as a path of dignity and legacy. She leads an integrated model of community-based conservation, ecotourism and female empowerment.

Dominggus Sami Kalami

Dominggus is a member of the Moi tribe and lives in a remote village in Southwest Papua Province in Indonesia. He grew up living in the wilderness and his childhood life held more interaction with the jungle than other children. His parents always taught him that the forest is ‘a Mother’, because it is the forest that protects and provides everything for their survival and it should in turn be protected. Dominggus returned to his village following his education and continues to speak out to be the guardian of the forest. He is now a tour guide for eco-tourists who want to learn more about the environment and how to protect the forest, having previously worked as a porter supporting those on the tours. His involvement in eco-tourism is a way for Dominggus to continue the fight to protect the forest around his village. He has also encouraged young people from other villages to become aware of the importance of protecting forests and how ecotourism can be a vessel for this, while also generating income for the areas. Dominggus has overcome many obstacles to develop ecotourism in his village, but has now helped to develop the scheme more widely and has built good relationships with a number of organisations to make the tours possible.

FFI Panel Comments: A candidate with a truly remarkable background and roots in conversation. We applaud his achievements, especially when you consider the hardships he has had to endure to get to where he is now.

Mohamad Rizki Riadhi 

Mohamad grew up in a small town in Indonesia where he knew little of wildlife preservation or conservation, but developed his passion through his further education. He is committed to fulfilling his obligations as Biodiversity Guardian in the Southwest Papua Province and his dedication to biodiversity is evidenced in his attempts and successes to rescue endangered and threated species from illegal trafficking. He works with numerous parties, including armed forces and police, to create teams that conduct patrols to monitor and collect data of the illegal circulation of wildlife, by both air and sea routes. Mohamad’s drive and achievements have encouraged other stakeholders in Southwest Papua to become more concerned and strengthen monitoring of illegal poaching and wildlife threats.

Anca Barbu

Anca kick-started her conservation career during her time studying for her degree in Ecology and Environment, through conducting numerous volunteering activities and environmental projects. She has organised and promoted many projects that focus on recycling and the importance of recycling paper, and cleaning and learning about natural areas and preventing littering. After university, she began working at the environmental protection, conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development of rural communities NGO, Asociatia Zaranda and is responsible for the sustainable community development activating within the local landscape. FFI has been a partner with Asociatia Zaranda since its formation in 2011. Anca leads the development, coordination and engagement with local community members for the sustainable development of rural communities within the landscape but supporting and promoting sustainable livelihood activities. She supports the promotion of natural and cultural heritage of the area, conducts environmental education projects for school children within the communities and runs educational activity classes. Anca was instrumental in the construction of an authorised honey processing facility where profit goes directly back to the community beekeepers. Anca has grown from a fresh new graduate to an accomplished and competent leader, facilitator, and has been instrumental in increasing the recognition and value of the Zaranda landscape.  

Cynthia Adeline A. Layusa, Calayan Rail Project

Cynthia started her career in conservation as a humpback whale research volunteer and joined the Calayan Rail Project, which saw the initiation of a long-term conservation programme on Calayan Island and the building of conservation skills of local stakeholders, to help secure the future of a newly discovered flightless bird species in northern Philippines. In 2007, she was part of a project funded by the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) that successfully built the capacity to conserve this bird and led to a larger project gaining new information and the establishment of a local wildlife sanctuary. Cynthia has received leadership training and mentoring support from the CLP and has been willing to support other early conservationists. Cynthia became the youngest president of the Biodiversity Conservation Society of the Philippines which resulted in the publication of multiple journals. She has raised funds to host events and support for others and has helped craft national policies.

Cynthia’s activity raises awareness about the Philippines’ biodiversity and designs infographics that are shared widely. During the pandemic, she organised the Biodiversity Online digital forum and an online workshop series for students. Alongside this she has been the team leader and lead author for the Philippine Biodiversity Toolkit, a reference material freely available to more than one million students throughout the country.

Ravinder Kaur

Ravinder is a dedicated conservationist who has delivered conservation success where resources and support have been difficult to obtain. After graduating from a degree in Conservation Biology, she began working with the Malaysian Nature Society’s hornbill project. This was her first conservation job and she quickly developed her passion for conserving hornbills. They are a highly important species for forest restoration as they are known to regurgitate seeds unharmed over great distances. Having stayed in this role for several years, Ravinder then began a Master’s degree in the breeding biology of hornbills in Temenggor, Perak, and after graduating in 2013 she is widely considered to be an expert in her field. She then went on to pursue her PhD in Kinabatangan, to study the breeding biology of hornbills in Borneo. She is also a member of the Helmeted Hornbill Working Group. In 2016, she began pursuing her PhD where she studied the internal temperature and humidity of natural hornbill nests, where she wanted to apply this knowledge to development artificial nest boxes. In 2017, she was selected for a Future-Conservationist Award by the Conservation Leadership Programme which allowed her to scale up her PhD research, leading her team to design the use of nesting boxes. Ravinder works closely with partners HUTAN/KOCP, a local ngo along with several experts from Chester Zoo, Beauval Zoo and Phoenix Zoo, that pioneered the instalment of artificial nest boxes that were highly successful with 3 different species of hornbill currently found using the nests regularly. Through her career, Ravinder has found new opportunities and support for her work with the conservation of bird species in Malaysia, taking the initiative to get the ball rolling in 2019 Ravinder established her own social enterprise for which she is the scientific director.  

Here is a link to Ravinder’s fundraiser for nature conservation in Malaysia, through the sale of fine art prints – http://www.jitspics.com/fine-art-prints/.

Farah Mukhida

Farah Mukhida has worked tirelessly in conservation and has spearheaded world-class projects concerning endangered reptiles, birds and protected areas in Anguilla and beyond. She has been instrumental in forming conservation networks to protect Critically Endangered iguanas and sea turtles, and in forming the Caribbean Conservation Network.

Farah joined the Anguilla National Trust in 2005 and has shown extraordinary vision, hard work and talent in engaging, inspiring and supporting people to take action to better their wildlife and environment. Her achievements in partnership with FFI include restoring Dog Island, which more than tripled the island’s globally important bird populations, and reintroducing Critically endangered Lesser Antillean iguanas to the Prickly Pear Cays.

When dealing with controversial endeavours such as pressing for turtle hunting bans, Farah has been an excellent communicator and uses education and outreach to garner support and mutual understanding. Farah has been an inspiration to her enthusiastic young staff and recognises the value of investing in the conservationists of the future.

Beyond Anguilla, Farah was instrumental in establishing regional consortiums to conserve Critically Endangered iguanas and sea turtles, along with forming the Caribbean Conservation Network: a community of conservation NGOs in UK Overseas Territories to share skills and coordinate on projects and training.

Pablo Melo Hoffmann

Pablo is a conservation biologist who has devoted his adult life to ensuring the survival of Southern Brazil’s endangered tree species, having witnessed the loss of the Araucaria forest as a child.

In 2003 he, along with a group of friends, established a local NGO named Sociedade Chaua, turning his home into the headquarters and working around the clock as a volunteer in the early years to get it off the ground. He decided that Chaua should focus on the endangered trees of Southern Brazil as current restoration projects focused on a small number of more common species. Pablo is now the technical expert for tree restoration in his region, developing the knowledge on how to grow and plant more than 150 different tree species.

Pablo’s biggest legacy may be the wider change he is instilling in forest restoration. He has reached out to and developed partnerships with tree nurseries, other NGOs, and farmers and has successfully argued the case for them to use threatened trees in their restoration work. As of 2017, 11 other tree nurseries and 25 farmers were growing and planting threatened trees. Every year, Pablo trains hundreds of students, farmers and nursery managers in the techniques needed to grow, care for and plant threatened species, to ensure that everything he learns is shared and applied elsewhere.

Dr Cahyo Rahmadi

Dr Cahyo Rahmadi is an internationally respected expert in the study of organisms that live in caves and has dedicated him work over the years to discovering many new species and protecting their habitats for local and scientific communities. He holds significant influence with the President of Indonesia as Advisor on Karst landscapes and their management in order to secure their future.

Dr Rahmadi has worked with FFI on a number of occasions, including in 2009/2010 when he joined the FFI field team working on the prison island of Nusa Kambangan on the south coast of Java, in order to assess the biodiversity in and around the cement quarry operated by Holcim Indonesia. This work resulted in the discovery of 40 species new to science, and a radically changed corporate view of biodiversity. He is committed to opening the world of cave biodiversity to as many people as possible and has initiated a blog, founded the Indonesia Speleological Society and conceiving and starting an Indonesian caves database.

Yufang Gao

Yufang Gao has worked tirelessly to unravel the China-bound ivory trade, through extensive fieldwork in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and China. He has found that one of the leading obstacles in addressing the mounting crisis of ivory trafficking is that each party involved has a different view, but Gao has presented his findings to decision makers and the general public, and has been able to advise NGOs on conservation strategies.

Gao was selected by the Conservation Leadership Programme for an internship in 2008 and went to work for the Wildlife Conservation Society in China. In 2011, he was offered a fellowship by the Beijing Shansui Conservation Center to spend a year with the Nyanpo Yuzee Environmental Protection Association, a group of Tibetan monks dedicated to protect the fauna and flora in Nyanpo Yuzee. Here he observed how this renowned Tibetan grassroots NGO practices conservation and helped the Association set up community-based monitoring and conservation projects. He is now the Executive Director of the Everest Snow Leopard Conservation Centre, an innovative public-private partnership to save the iconic snow leopard in Tibet.

Mirza Kusrini

Mirza Kusrini is an enthusiastic advocate for amphibian and reptile conservation in Indonesia. She set up the Herpetologist Society to initiate training in this area and served as its Chair for five years. The Society brings together scientists, professionals, agencies and amateurs working in this field.

Mirza has contributed hugely to educating children about conservation, leading projects such as wildlife camps, teacher training and school counselling. She also launched a frog conservation awareness programme amongst schoolchildren and the general public. Mirza is positive about the prospects of frog conservation in Indonesia and she is helping to inspire the next generation of amphibian researchers and conservationists.

Julie Hanta Razafimanahaka

Julie Hanta Razafimanahaka has worked tirelessly to support conservation in her homeland of Madagascar, rising from a volunteer researcher and student to Director of ‘Madagasikara Voakajy’, FFI’s Malagasy conservation partner. She is responsible for the organisation’s fundraising, financial management, science, community engagement and operations and it has gone from strength to strength under her leadership. She is an outstanding communicator and liaises with key senior stakeholders including community leaders, government officials, scientists and donors.

In 2007, Julie was recognised by the UK Government’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as one of Madagascar’s most promising conservation scientists and received funding to study for her MSc in Applied Ecology and Conservation at the University of East Anglia. In 2011, Julie was offered a place on the Kinship Conservation Fellows programme where she worked further on the theme of Sustainable Trade of Game Species in Western Madagascar. She is an exceptional conservationist, whose positive attitude and tireless enthusiasm have been widely recognised amongst the conservation community

Richard Sambolahn

Richard Sambolahn has been working to protect Liberia’s forests and their biodiversity since 1973 and was key in supporting the development of sustainable practices within the forestry sector in the 1980s and 1990s. He set up Liberia’s first conservation NGO, the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia, of which he was elected Chair in 1988.

Richard has carried out extensive field work in Liberian communities, and in 1997 he set up ‘Farmers Associated to Conserve the Environment’ which has worked with local communities to adopt environmentally friendly livelihood practices. Richard is an exceptional communicator and has worked hard to determine that Liberia’s forests and their biodiversity are valued and respected by the very communities who rely on them for their livelihoods.

Radu Mot

Radu Mot has worked on forestry and wildlife issues in his native country of Romania since 1999, splitting his time between developing programmes for nature protection and working as a nature photographer. He has collaborated with a host of Romanian organisations, including the Romanian Forest Administration, the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme and National Geographic Romania.

Radu’s conservation work has had a significant impact throughout the country, including the hand he had in reintroducing the European Beaver to Romania for the first time since 1824 and in conflict mitigation between local communities and the large carnivores of Romania. In 2011 Radu set up Zarand  NGO, a  non-profit organisation which aims to preserve the conservation of one of the most pristine landscapes in Romania. Radu’s commitment to this ancient landscape is testament to his leadership in this field.

Anyaa Vohiri

Anyaa Vohiri left Hawaii in 2000 to return to her civil war-ridden homeland of Liberia to help put order in to its environmental and forest management. She worked with the National Environmental Commission of Liberia, where she was the primary author of two framework environmental laws: the Environmental Protection and Management Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency Act.

In 2001, Anyaa became the Country Director for FFI’s Liberia Programmes and set up an office that served as a safe haven for environmental managers, foresters, conservationists and researchers who could work on useful initiatives, improve their skills and lay the environmental groundwork for when things improved. As FFI Liberia has been able to mature, Anyaa has now left the programme but remains a constant advisor on all environmental matters and is now the Managing Director of the Liberian Environmental Protection Agency, which she laid the groundwork for.

Lisel Alamilla

Lisel Alamilla is the Executive Director of the Ya’axché Conservation Trust in Belize, which is rapidly becoming a nationally recognised voice for conservation in Belize. The Trust has provided an extraordinary partner for FFI  and has used a combination of sustainable land use management, strategic advocacy and awareness, and supported socially innovative and economically viable enterprise to address immense conservation challenges while working with local communities.

In 2012, Lisel was appointed the new Cabinet Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, Sustainable Development and Indigenous People in Belize. She was approached for the role by the Government and endorsed by the Association of Protected Areas Management Organisations, an umbrella organisation for conservation groups. This will be a challenging role for Lisel, but one that will prove very positive for conservation policy in Belize.

Elena Bykove and Alexander Esipov

Elene Bykova and Alexander Esipov, of the Institute of Zoology in Uzbekistan, have been partners to FFI since 2003, providing invaluable experience and on-the-ground support to FFI’s Saiga Antelope conservation project. They have raised awareness and encouraged community engagement in Saiga conservation, developed policy and legislation and have incorporated the business sector in consrvation planning.

Elena and Alexander’s work is directly in line with the aims of FFI and they conducted a socio-economic baseline survey in their local area to better understand and subsequently address human needs. They have targeted villages involved with illegal poaching and have encouraged local people to join their ‘Saiga Friends Group’, which acts as an advocate for Saiga protection and wider biodiversity conservation in the area. They have also encouraged the formation of Community Ranger Groups, run by former poachers, which play an active role in monitoring the population of saigas and informing state ranger patrols.