Professor David Macdonald named as global finalist for lifetime Award for Conservation Excellence

We are delighted to announce that Professor David Macdonald has been named a global finalist for lifetime Award for Conservation Excellence.

This nomination recognises “the extraordinary contributions made to wildlife conservation by the world’s leading scientists”. The award will be presented by The Banovich Wildscapes Foundation, which was founded in 2007 by artist John Banovich, an American oil painter known internationally for his portrayals of wildlife. The first ever ACE recipient will be announced at a ceremony during the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition on February 14, 2018 at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina, and will be awarded a $100,000 cash prize.

Professor Macdonald says that if he wins, the award money will contribute to a field study of animals cruelly persecuted for illegal trade, and towards the sponsorship of a doctoral studentship on the impact of the human population explosion on wildlife. 

The Director and founder of the world renowned Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Professor Macdonald is a true conservation leader in every sense, and has had impacts at every level from rural African communities to top international policy.

Of course people who know little of conservation imagine it to be a cosy and cuddly subject, but that is not the understanding of anybody who appreciates that conservation is actually about how people in the 21st Century (8 billion or so of them, from peasants to presidents) wish humanity to live alongside wildlife and the environment, and hence is about deep choices that affect every single citizen – this is not easy stuff!