My friend Shivani Bhalla has been named winner of the 2009 Young Women Conservation Biologists Award. She was unanimously selected by Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Africa Section Young Women Conservation Biologists Awards Panel. In addition to Ms Bhalla’s academic excellence, her breadth and depth of activities in the conservation and community awareness arenas was second to none.
This is the third year that the award has been presented. The Award certificate will be presented at the 2009 SCB meeting, to be held in Beijing from 11-16 July, 2009.
Dr Phoebe Barnard (SCB Africa Section Award Panel Chair 2007 and 2009) says, "We in Africa are really fortunate to have conservation biologists with such passion and energy in our midst." Ms Bhalla is currently attaining her PhD through the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology.
Working with pastoralists in Samburu, Northern Kenya, Ms Bhalla seeks to reduce livestock loss to predators, track lion movement in and out of the protected areas (Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba National Reserves) and monitor habitat changes and prey numbers.
Shivani says Africa’s lion population has dramatically reduced in recent years because of habitat reduction and human-lion conflict. Thus if local communities are not engaged as part of the solution, lions will disappear from the landscape.
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