Whitley Fund for Nature

Whitley Fund for Nature Whitley Fund for Nature is a UK registered charity offering funding, training and profile WFN is a UK registered charity (number 1081455)
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🌊 How do you protect Africa’s largest lake and the lives that depend on it?Leonard Akwany received Continuation Funding ...
15/06/2026

🌊 How do you protect Africa’s largest lake and the lives that depend on it?

Leonard Akwany received Continuation Funding in 2025 to scale up his and Ecofinder Kenya’s project to save Lake Victoria and the fish that call it home. With this funding Leonard and his team will:

- Expand a network of community fish reserves by 2000 ha of fish breeding areas.

- Train fishers, women and youth on alternative green livelihoods to reduce pressure on declining fisheries and habitat.

- Restore 35 km of degraded shoreline and aquatic habitats

- Hatch and rear over 50,000 native fish juveniles to restock the zones under community-led sustainable fisheries management.

This ensures an enduring healthier fish population and habitat – a win-win for people and nature.

Our Continuation Funding provides follow-on grants of up to ÂŁ100,000 over two years to past Whitley Award winners to support locally-led projects driving positive change.

Meet the 16 recipients of 2025: https://whitleyaward.org/2025/12/19/meet-the-2025-continuation-funding-winners/

To mark Sir David Attenborough's 100th birthday last month, our bonus How to Save It podcast episode explores the collec...
12/06/2026

To mark Sir David Attenborough's 100th birthday last month, our bonus How to Save It podcast episode explores the collective action that Sir David has inspired and celebrates his very special relationship with the charity - as a trustee, judge, ceremony compère and ambassador: https://whitleyaward.org/2026/05/08/sir-david-attenborough-at-100/

Hosted by Kate Humble, the episode features past Whitley Award winners, including the "Bat Man of Mexico" Professor Rodrigo Medellin, and dentist Dr Hotlin Ompusunggu, who gives free treatment in exchange for planting tree saplings in Indonesia.

We hear from Dr Farina Othman how Sir David helped an important campaign to protect Bornean elephants. WFN Trustee Dr Dino Martins celebrates Sir David’s storytelling, including the importance of “all the wonderful little creatures who help keep these fantastic ecosystems going”, and Dr Patrícia Medici reflects on meeting Sir David at an event in London.

11/06/2026

Celebrating global conservation leaders at the 2026 Whitley Awards🏆

The 2026 Whitley Awards Ceremony gathered 450 supporters at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London to honour the six latest Whitley Award-winning conservationists and the Whitley Gold Award winner.

Driving real change for nature and people, this year’s winners shared their ambitious plans to scale their work with teams and communities rooted in the ecosystems they protect.

WFN Ambassadors Tom Heap and Kate Humble generously hosted the ceremony again this year, and WFN’s Founder Edward Whitley OBE thanked our major donors and partners for their “unconditional support and action” for over 30 years.

The auditorium was brought to life by a surprise performance from The Herds puppets, and beautiful illustrations of the winners’ focal species by Emily Faccini.

Ahead of WFN Ambassador Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, we celebrated his incredible contribution to the charity over nearly 30 years.

Watch the full ceremony here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ9vqlEWIGE

11/06/2026

"Like many in conservation, we have lived through its full spectrum, losses that humbled us and victories that sustained us." - Farwiza Farhan

Farwiza and colleagues from NGO HAkA Forest Nature and Environment Aceh - Badrul Irfan, Irham Yunardi, and Lukmanul Hakim - accept the 2026 Whitley Gold Award for their work to accelerate community protection of water catchments in the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra.

Watch their speech about HAkA’s journey in conservation and what led them to this moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8YQCmok3oc

10/06/2026

"Saving species and habitat also means protecting the humans that live there too." -Marina Kameni

Marina joined the ceremony via livestream to accept her 2026 Whitley Award for her work with NGO Herp-Cameroon to protect threatened amphibians in Mount Manengouba, Cameroon.

Watch Marina’s speech about what led her to amphibian conservation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-yOmw3qmaY

08/06/2026

"The ocean reminds us we are all connected by the one ocean we share in the only one planet, blue planet we share, and its protection ultimately depends on all of us." - Paola SangolquĂ­

Paola took to the stage to receive her 2026 Whitley Award for her work with NGO Jocotoco conserving the Critically Endangered Galápagos Petrel from the brink of extinction in Santa Cruz, Galápagos.

Watch Paola’s speech about our connected relationship with nature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umjQtgvFAU

For nature, for people, for our planet 🌎In honour of World Environment Day, we're taking a moment to celebrate the posit...
05/06/2026

For nature, for people, for our planet 🌎

In honour of World Environment Day, we're taking a moment to celebrate the positive impact our Whitley Fund for Nature grantees achieved over the last year.

As a collective, WFN winners and grantees are tackling the climate and biodiversity crises head on through local solutions.

Click through to see how their collective efforts are driving global change.

*Statistics have been collected from 2025 grantees who have reported the following impact.

04/06/2026

"The challenges are real, but so are the opportunities to create lasting change." - Issah Seidu

Issah received his 2026 Whitley Award for his work with NGO AquaLife Conservancy to save Ghana’s Critically Endangered guitarfish through community action.

Watch Issah’s speech about the intertwined yet vulnerable relationship between Ghana’s coastline and communities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwQoGIeOLsU

03/06/2026

“It is this deep bond to home which makes this species incredibly vulnerable, if that one wetland disappears they simply don't choose another” - Barkha S***a

Barkha took to the stage to receive her 2026 Whitley Award for her work with NGO FOSEP Federation of Societies for Environmental Protectionof Societies for Environmental Protection to restore critical wetlands and save the rare and elusive Himalayan salamander.

Watch Barkha’s speech about the resilience of the Himalayan salamander and the fragility of their habitat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paImwxaXLAs

01/06/2026

“I realised that protecting lions inside the park means very little if we were not also protecting the people living alongside them” - Moreangels Mbizah

Moreangels’ shared this heartfelt speech when she took to the stage to receive her 2026 Whitley Award.

Moreangels, her NGO Wildlife Conservation Action and communities are working to enable and encourage human-wildlife coexistence in Zimbabwe’s lower Zambezi Valley.

Their approach has already reduced local conflict incidents by as much as 98% in some areas.

Watch Moreangels’ Whitley Awards ceremony speech about what led her to focus on community-centred conservation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92QHgDVW4nI

Address

23a Berghem Mews, Blythe Road
London
W140HN

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 9:30am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+442072219752

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