IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

IUCN announces winner of 2012 IUCN Thomson Reuters Environmental Media Award

01 July 2012 | Media advisory

For more than ten years, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has partnered with Thomson Reuters Foundation to honour environmental journalism with the IUCN – Thomson Reuters Environmental Media Award. IUCN is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2012 Award is Diogo Veríssimo, a conservation biologist from Portugal with a passion for science communication.

For the first time ever the Award was hosted on Facebook, receiving 162 entries from 48 countries and  a total of 26,274 votes. Veríssimo’s entry, Greening the crisis: turning trouble into opportunity, won with an astounding 5,352 votes. Along with the accolade of winning the award, Diogo, who is currently undertaking a PhD at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent, will receive an all expenses paid trip to South Korea to attend the IUCN World Conservation Congress on Jeju Island in September.

“Communicating nature and its inherent value in our lives is one of the greatest, yet most difficult tasks in the world. The interest in the IUCN – Thomson Reuters Environmental Media Award was inspiring this year,” says John Kidd, IUCN Director of Global Communications. “We are extremely pleased to be able to award Diogo for his article and dedication to science communication.”

“I am thrilled to be chosen as the 2012 IUCN – Thomson Reuters Environmental Media Award winner and to have the opportunity to attend the world’s leading environmental summit,” says Diogo Veríssimo, winner of the 2012 IUCN Thomson Reuters Environmental Media Award. “Receiving the award will also help promote my personal mission of improving outreach and fundraising efforts for biodiversity conservation. I am so grateful to those that supported, voted for and shared my entry.”
 

For information please contact:
Gillian Eborn, Award Coordinator, t +41 22 999 0233, e: gillian.eborn@iucn.org