The 2022 Future For Nature Award Event – 15th Anniversary Edition
On May 13th 2022, the annual Future For Nature Award Event was held in Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem, The Netherlands. Despite it being Friday the 13th, the day was anything but unlucky. For the first time in two years, we were finally able to come together and host the event live at the zoo, instead of streaming it to your homes.
Coming Together
(Previous) winners were flown in from all over the world to spend a week at the zoo reacquainting themselves and getting to know the new winners joining the FFN Family. A fun-filled week of insightful workshops, lovely dinners and networking ensued. At the end of this week the FFN Awards were presented.
Honouring All Winners
This year’s Award Event was special. Not only because of its 15th anniversary, but also the fact that nine winners were getting their Awards and cheques. This made for an interesting show. First off, our host and chair of the International Selection Committee, Saba Douglas-Hamilton opened the ceremony. She introduced our first amazing Guests of Honour: vice president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans. After he gave his speech, it was time for this year’s winners to take the stage.
2022 Winners
Gabriel Massocato from Brazil spoke about his commendable efforts in saving the giant armadillos in the Pantanal. He moved us with this love and drive for this animal and showed us what is he doing to protect them. Tiasa Adhya from India is working towards a safer future for the fishing cat in the wetlands of Asia. She made beautiful connections showing the audience why safeguarding this species can help humans too. Lastly, Rebecca Cliffe from Great Britain took us on a journey of her life studying the sloths in Costa Rica. Armed with some great advice: sometimes you need to take things slow in a fast-paced world.
Celebrating All Conservation Efforts
After this year’s incredible winners were presented with their awards and cheques, it was time for Saba to announce the second Guest of Honour of the ceremony: president of the IUCN Razan Al Mubarak. It was amazing to see two inspiring Guests of Honour up on the stage. After her speech it was time to put the six winners of 2020 and 2021 in the spotlight. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were not able to experience a live celebration of their amazing conservation efforts and were never able to receive their award. Iroro Tanshi: protecting bats in Nigeria, Tjalle Boorsma: helping the blue-throated macaw in Bolivia, María Fernanda Puerto-Carillo: saving the jaguars in Venezuela, Mónica Torres: protecting the Abronia campbelli lizards in Guatemala, Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour: minimising ray bycatch in the Persian Gulf and Karolina Araya Sandoval: saving the Chilean woodstar hummingbird.
It was a wonderful 15th Award Event honouring nine deserving winners. On to fifteen more!
Did you miss the event or want to get inspired again? Watch the recorded livestream below!
