Colombian conservationist and Aberdeen Graduate, Dr Fernando Trujillo, is this year’s overall winner of the UK’s top conservation prize for his work to conserve South America’s pink river dolphins.
Fernando won both the Whitley Award sponsored by HSBC Holdings and the Whitley Gold Award for his ambitious conservation programme along the Amazon River and its tributaries in Bolivia, Perú and Ecuador.
Fernando was selected from among the shortlist of ten to be named overall winner. He received both his awards – worth a total of £60,000 of funding over two years - from HRH The Princess Royal and Sir David Attenborough at London's Royal Geographical Society earlier this month.
One of South America's flagship species, River dolphins, are now among the world's most endangered cetaceans. Recent studies show the Pink River Dolphins endemic to the Amazon and Orinoco basins face a new threat, they are being deliberately killed for export as fishing bait to catch scavenger fish such as catfish in Colombia.
Fernando has been studying river dolphins in Columbia for nearly 20 years. Between 1997 and 2000, with funding from the British Council, he came to Aberdeen to carry out his PhD under the supervision of Professor Paul Thompson at the Lighthouse Field Station.
Since leaving Aberdeen, Fernando's work at the Omacha Foundation in Columbia has been supported by major conservation charities such as WWF and the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society. Working with a team of young South American scientists, he has led an ambitious conservation programme in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, conducting systematic research along the Amazon River and its tributaries in Bolivia, Perú and Ecuador to estimate river dolphin numbers.