I am very excited to let you know that I am the recipient of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Africa Section Young Women Conservation Biologist of the Year award!
More information that was announced recently is below:
Young Women Conservation Biologists Award
won by Kenyan Lion Researcher Shivani Bhalla
The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) Africa Section Young Women Conservation Biologists Awards Panel has unanimously selected Shivani Bhalla as the winner of this year’s Young Women Conservation Biologists Award – the third year that the award has been presented.
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. Dr Phoebe Barnard (SCB Africa Section Award Panel Chair 2007 and 2009) said that “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 is working to reduce livestock loss to predators, tracks lions movements in and out of the protected areas (Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba National Reserves), and monitors habitat changes and prey numbers. Africa’s lion population has been dramatically reduced in recent years primarily from habitat reduction and human-lion conflict. Ms. Bhalla states, “If local communities are not engaged as part of the solution, lions will disappear from the landscape.”
The Award certificate will be presented at the 2009 SCB meeting, to be held in Beijing from 11-16 July, 2009. This year’s mainstream SCB awardees (for the SCB LaRoe and Distinguished Service Awards) include Joel Berger, George Schaller and Kamal Bawa, and Shivani will be attending the conference to receive her award personally.
The 2007 winner of the YWCB Award was Margaret Aanyu, freshwater biologist from Uganda, and the 2008 winner was Kristal Maze, chief director of biodiversity planning and mainstreaming from South Africa.
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