IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Stewart McPherson receives new Plant Conservation Award

13 September 2012 | News story

The first recipient of the David Given Award for Excellence in Plant Conservation is Stewart McPherson, a member of the IUCN SSC Carnivorous Plant Specialist Group. Stewart is a passionate and dedicated field scientist, photographer, and writer. His efforts have resulted in an outstanding body of information useful to conservation of carnivorous plants both in situ and ex situ.

Stewart has climbed more than 200 mountains around the world to systematically document, study, and photograph rare, threatened, and little-known carnivorous plant species, identifying more than 35 species new to science, including the Nepenthes attenboroughii.

His work has been published in scientific journals and is being used for  IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessments and conservation of these taxa in situ. Stewart also established Ark of Life, a conservation programme dedicated to ex situ conservation of the most threatened carnivorous plant taxa. Information about Stewart’s work can be found at www.arkoflife.net

The David Given Award for Excellence in Plant Conservation is a new IUCN SSC (International Union for Conservation of Nature, Species Survival Commission) award created by the SSC Plant Conservation Sub-Committee to enhance the profile of plant conservation and encourage outstanding efforts of young plant conservation professionals. This award is named after the late Dr. David Given to honour his outstanding contributions to SSC and more broadly to plant conservation.

For more information please contact:
Danna J. Leaman, Vice-chair, IUCN-SSC Plant Conservation Sub-Committee, djl@green-world.orgRobert Cantley, Chair, IUCN-SSC Carnivorous Plant Specialist Group chair@iucn-cpsg.org