BP Conservation A project conserving the critically endangered Blue-billed Curassow in Colombia received a Conservation Leadership Award Zoom In

BP Conservation Programme rewards future conservationists

23-05-2006

The BP Conservation Programme (BPCP) yesterday awarded 27 winning teams from 21 different countries with a total of $475,000. The Awards will support teams carrying out practical research projects on a wide range of globally threatened species and habitats around the world - from surveying chameleons in Madagascar and conserving sharks in Brazil, to studying rare frogs in Tobago and working with local communities to protect birds in the Philippines.

This year, 19 teams were awarded “Future Conservationist Awards,” and 8 awards were granted to teams continuing projects seeded by the BP Conservation Programme – 3 teams received “Conservation Leadership Awards” and 5 teams received “Conservation Follow-up Awards”. The annual awards aim to develop leadership potential in a new generation of conservation professionals and address global conservation priorities at a local level by assisting and encouraging teams of young people who are undertaking important conservation projects globally.

From the 26 May until 7 June, representatives from the 19 Future Conservationist Award winning teams will come together to attend two weeks of practical training workshops in Snowdonia, Wales. Winners will learn a variety of skills, including conservation education, communications, people-oriented research, project planning and management skills. This training will assist them in carrying out their projects, and allow them the opportunity to meet and share ideas with one another and a wide range of world-class global conservation experts. These young, talented individuals hold the potential to become environmental leaders of the future.

"We aim to create a young global network of biodiversity conservation expertise, and the training and long-term mentoring support provided by this programme builds the immediate capabilities of projects, but perhaps more significantly, builds the skills, enthusiasm and potential of individual team members." —Marianne Carter, Manager, BP Conservation Programme

Conservation Leadership awards, totalling $133,000, have been awarded this year to some outstanding advancing projects and developing organisations that the programme has helped to seed. The first of these builds on several years’ work conserving biological diversity in one of the few remaining remnants of Atlantic Forest of Argentina. The team aims to consolidate the corridor, threatened by deforestation and agricultural development, between Urugua-í and Foerster parks by implementing a new co-managed reserve and supporting community initiatives, such as education, agroecology and restoration, as well as conducting biodiversity surveys and monitoring.

A project conserving the critically endangered Blue-billed Curassow Crax alberti in Colombia also received a Conservation Leadership Award. In 2004, local conservation organisation ProAves launched a conservation initiative to identify possibly the last viable population of Blue-billed Curassow in Serranía de las Quinchas. They produced a 5-year Action Plan and purchased 1,200 hectares to establish the El Paujil Nature Reserve. Now, with BP support, the group plans to create a buffer zone around the reserve to protect the forest. This will be accomplished with community reserves, sustainable community development and awareness initiatives.

The third and final award is supporting sustainable bat conservation across four countries in the Caucasus Mountains, including Romania, Georgia, Poland and Armenia. The extremely various landscapes in the Caucasus provide myriad habitats for bats. Working together across the region, the project team aims to maintain population levels of cave dwelling bats throughout the Caucasus Mountains.

The BP Conservation Programme is a partnership between BP, BirdLife International, Fauna & Flora International, Conservation International and the Wildlife Conservation Society. For more information about year’s winning projects, visit http://conservation.bp.com