Broadening horizons
Saving a forest or a species requires a multi-pronged plan that considers many factors. Three previous Rolex Laureates continue to expand their projects in order to accomplish their conservation goals. Anita Studer (1990 Laureate), Tomas Diagne (1998 Associate Laureate) and Rodney Jackson (1981 Laureate) have much in common despite living worlds apart as they struggle to save tortoises, birds and their habitats, and snow leopards.
From Switzerland to Brazil, saving forests and birds
Anita Studer, the Swiss ornithologist who won a Rolex Award in 1990 for her reforestry project in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, is as busy as ever. “We’ve planted 3 million trees in cooperation with 50 municipalities spread across 14 of the country’s states,” explains Studer, who has been visiting her adopted country for over 20 years as part of her campaign to preserve its biodiversity, working hand in hand with the local people.
In 2007, Studer launched a four-year programme aimed at preserving the habitat of two of the world’s biggest birds: the impressive harpy eagle, which has a two-metre wingspan, and the hyacinth macaw, with its striking cobalt blue plumage.
©Rolex Awards/Marc Latzel
“We work in an area covering 20,000km2 in the states of Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí and Bahia, in north-east Brazil,” the Laureate says. “Large-scale slash-and-burn clearance has reduced the forests of large trees where the harpy eagles nest and the palm forests where hyacinth macaw find the fruit and nuts on which they feed.”
With her association, Nordesta, Studer runs a far-reaching awareness-raising campaign among local communities thanks to which slash-and-burn has fallen by 70 per cent. At the same time, she has mobilized four communities to set up tree nurseries and plant palm and fruit trees that will serve as corridors between pockets of isolated forest.
Studer is as committed as ever to improving the lot of the local population. She has coupled the programme with new, income-generating initiatives.
“We’ve introduced bee-keeping so that the villagers can sell honey, opened 12 new schools and set up 25 occupational workshops where volunteers are training about 100 young people in silk screen techniques, sewing, carpentry and electricity.”
Senegal’s tortoise specialist takes a wider view
Tomas Diagne, chosen as an Associate Laureate in 1998 for his project to open a breeding and protection centre for threatened tortoises, continues to work to save these fascinating reptiles. The 15-hectare centre, which in 2001 became the Noflaye Tortoise Village, 35 kilometres from Dakar and home to over 600 specimens of five regional species – including Geochelone sulcata, Africa’s largest land tortoise – attracts about 8,000 visitors each year.
Between 2004 and 2007, Diagne also played a key role in establishing a 260-hectare nature reserve for tortoises, fish and manatees in a marshy area of northern Senegal. But this tortoise specialist strongly believes that a broader perspective, one encompassing the entire continent, is now needed to ensure the tortoises’ survival.
©Rolex Awards/Eric Vandeville
“Since 2003, I have conducted several studies to assess the state of tortoise populations and their habitats in Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Ghana, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” the Associate Laureate explains. “We don’t have enough raw data, and because of this most African species [of tortoise] are not adequately covered by the national and international laws enacted to protect them. They are at risk of disappearing without our even noticing.”
An acknowledged expert in the field, Diagne was invited in 2006 to take part in the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Specialist Group on Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles. At 35, he is the youngest member and the first from West Africa. He is currently working on the forthcoming publication of an encyclopaedia and a series of field guides to African tortoises.
He is also raising funds to set up a research institute for tortoise study and conservation. He has already acquired a 1.5-hectare plot of land to build the institute. “Saving the tortoises is a huge challenge that requires great experience and understanding of the local context. It takes time and much patience. There is no magic solution,” Diagne says.
Himalayan corridors to let snow leopards live
Rodney Jackson, a Laureate of the 1981 Rolex Awards, has devoted 30 years of his life to one of the world’s most elusive animals, the snow leopard, which lives in the remote, rugged landscape of the Himalayas. After extensively documenting the habits and habitats of the leopard that roams in 12 countries of Central Asia and providing protection for this endangered animal through a wide range of strategies, Jackson now has a new focus to enhance the animal’s chance of survival.
“National parks supporting snow leopards are mostly small and scattered,” says the 1981 Laureate. “Alone the national parks cannot sustain a viable population of cats. The cats need safe corridors of habitat to establish a range, breed successfully or simply to move from one protected area to another.” He adds that without safe corridors, the cats are highly vulnerable to conflicts with people in non-protected areas where human activities are less regulated and poaching is more prevalent.
Courtesy of The Snow Leopard Conservation
Fieldwork, particularly arduous in this region of high mountains and low temperatures, is the basis of Jackson’s work. Only fieldwork during long treks can reveal to him and his colleagues the most likely routes that snow leopards use to get from point to point.
“One goal is to connect separate populations so that they are no longer isolated,” Jackson says. “Another goal is to design a locally driven monitoring plan with ongoing conservation actions that encourage mountain communities to appreciate and protect biodiversity within these corridors.”
Snow Leopard Conservancy, the organization set up by Jackson and his partner Darla Hillard, is forging ahead with its conservation and educational activities. Particularly successful are the “Just for Kids” pages on the programme’s website (snow leopard conservancy.org), which in 2008 attracted over 60,000 visits from children around the world, helping ensure that conservationists of the future will be inspired to follow Jackson’s example in protecting the snow leopard.
Learn more about Rodney JacksonGet Inspired
Download the new screensaver featuring images from Laureate projects over the 30-year history of the Rolex Awards.
Download NowReceive email notification of new information on the Rolex Awards for Enterprise.
Sign Up