Patrícia Medici is a Brazilian conservationist whose main professional interests are tapir conservation, tropical forest conservation, landscape ecology, and communication. For more than 30 years, Patrícia has been working for a Brazilian non-governmental organization called IPÊ – Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research) – of which she was one of the founding members. Since 1996, Patrícia coordinates the Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative (LTCI) and dedicates her life to the conservation of tapirs and their remaining habitats in Brazil. This species is listed as Vulnerable to Extinction on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as its populations are dwindling in the face of deforestation, hunting, roadkill and many other threats. Throughout her work, Patrícia has expanded knowledge about this poorly understood species, which is known as the ‘Gardener of the Forest.’ In doing so, she has created the world’s largest database on the species.
Background
Fresh out of college, Patrícia started her tapir conservation efforts in 1996. At that time, there was hardly any information available about these animals. Together with a team from IPÊ – Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research) – she embarked on the challenge of researching and promoting the conservation of tapirs in Brazil. Patrícia and the LTCI team now work across five Brazilian biomes: the Atlantic Forest, Amazon, Caatinga, Cerrado, and Pantanal.
By the time she received the Future for Nature Award in 2008, Patrícia had already been working towards the conservation of lowland tapirs in the Atlantic Forest for over 12 years. In 2008, she expanded her efforts to the Pantanal where no tapir research had been conducted ever before. The LTCI has become the expert of tapir conservation in the Brazil and has been expanding to other parts of the country ever since.
Since 2000, Patrícia has been the Chairperson of the IUCN SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG), a network of over 100 tapir conservationists from 27 different countries worldwide. Patrícia is also a TED Fellow, a National Geographic Explorer, and a WINGS Fellow.
“Winning the Future For Nature Award was a critical step towards establishing the LTCI in the Pantanal and strengthening our tapir conservation efforts in Brazil. The financial assistance guaranteed a large proportion of the costs of the programme, while the recognition provided by this award was instrumental in positioning the Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative as a conservation model in Brazil.”
Patrícia Medici
Vision and Approach
Patrícia believes in the keystone value of tapirs. These animals disperse large seeds, fulfilling the indispensable role of replanting forests and maintaining biodiversity. Because of this, lowland tapir conservation is vital to ensure biological diversity across entire ecosystems in South America. Yet, tapirs are threatened by several different threats including habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting, roadkill and many others. Patrícia’s approach focuses on establishing and expanding tapir conservation programmes across the species range in Brazil.
Since the start of the LTCI, her research into tapir movements has resulted in mitigation strategies for tapir road mortality, and in the creation of protected areas. The other key aspect of her work is to educate and involve local communities in tapir conservation. Tapirs have a bad reputation in Brazil, where referring to someone as a ‘tapir’ essentially equates to insulting that person. Patrícia and her team have been working to change that attitude towards the species. Through her work, she always strives to apply her knowledge directly into preserving the tapirs and restoring their natural habitats.
Impact of the Future For Nature Award
With the financial contribution from the FFN Award, Patrícia established the Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative (LTCI) in the Pantanal region in Brazil.
Over the years, the LTCI became a conservation model in Brazil, partly due to the international recognition of winning the Future for Nature Award in 2008.
The funding from FFN was also used to cover some of the LTCI’s running costs.
Moving Forward
In 2020, Patrícia received the Whitley Gold Award – a prestigious prize that is granted annually to a member of the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) alumni network.
In 2024, Patrícia received the Wings Women of Discovery Award and had her name given to a fund for the conservation of the world’s four tapir species. The announcement of the ‘Patrícia Medici Tapir Conservation Award’ was made at the closing session of the 8th International Tapir Symposium in July 2024 in Brazil.
During expeditions in 2023, 2024 and 2025, Patrícia and her team discovered that the lowland tapir is not extinct in the Caatinga biome, as previously believed (since 2012), and they are now deepening their investigations in search of these animals in these semi-arid regions of Brazil.
The year 2024 was a very busy one for the LTCI team. Through extensive fieldwork, the LTCI expanded their research by capturing 40 individual tapirs, collaring 12 new ones, and collecting 149 biological samples for health and genetics studies, advancing our understanding of tapir ecology, health, genetics, reproduction, social organization and much more. Through a network of 252 camera-traps, strategically placed across Brazil, the team successfully identified 613 individual tapirs, providing crucial data about population distribution.
Also in 2024, Patrícia and her team have trained over 500 professionals via internships, volunteering, courses and lectures. They secured 100 press appearances, published eight manuscripts (four scientific papers and four chapters in the ‘Tapirs of the World’ book) and reached over 845,000 people on social media. These efforts have amplified the message about protecting the vulnerable lowland tapir populations further than ever before, and their impact keeps growing.
"Although still relatively young, Patrícia's scientific abilities are very strong. More importantly, however, she is able to bring together diverse people with different interests and objectives and rally them around a common goal. This is extremely important in conservation. This award will help strengthen her position and credibility and lend credence to the goals she is fighting for."
Ms. Annette Lanjouw, International Selection Commitee
