Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa
The Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa is a lifetime achievement award, which recognises outstanding dedication and exceptional continued contribution to conservation in Africa. The winner is announced on the night of the Awards. Find out more about our past winners by clicking on their names below.
Previous winners include Clive Stockil from Zimbabwe (2013), Richard Bonham from Kenya (2014), Garth Owen-Smith from Namibia (2015), John Kahekwa from DRC (2016), Rian Labuschagne, former Park Manager of Zakouma National Park in Chad (2017), Dr Pete Morkel from Zimbabwe (2018), Dr. Carlos Lopes Pereira from Mozambique (2019), Hipólito Lima from São Tomé and Príncipe (2020), Simson Uri-Khob from Namibia (2021), and in 2022 there were two winner Ian Craig from Kenya and Achilles Byaruhanga from Uganda.
This award is generously sponsored by
The 2023 winner will be announced at the Tusk Conservation Awards ceremony in November 2023.
Meet the 2022 winners
Ian Craig – Kenya
Winner of the Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa 2022
Founder – Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
Raised in Kenya, Ian Craig converted his family’s 62,000-acre cattle ranch into a rhino sanctuary at the peak of the elephant and rhino poaching epidemic. The rhino sanctuary flourished and was later re-established as the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.
You can watch Ian’s story below or read more here.
Achilles Byaruhanga – Uganda
Winner of the Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa 2022
Executive Director – NatureUganda
Achilles has been a passionate voice for birds in Uganda for 27 years. In 2010, when he led a campaign to stop the government ‘giving away’ the Mabira forest reserve to sugarcane growers, he received death threats. However, his efforts were not only successful, but saved other gazetted forests across the country from similar fates.
You can watch Achilles’s story below or read more here.
Past Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa Winners
Simson Uri-Khob – Namibia
Winner of the Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa 2021
CEO – Save the Rhino Trust (SRT)
Simson has worked with the Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) for 30 years, becoming CEO in 2015. When Simson joined the SRT in the early 1990s, Namibia’s black rhino population was just back from the brink of almost complete decimation. Today, rhino numbers have increased and conservancies have generated more than US$10 million in cash income and other benefits for conservancy members.
You can watch Simson’s story below or read more here.
Hipólito Lima | São Tomé and Príncipe
Winner of the Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa 2020
Programa Tato – Founder and Rangers Supervisor.
Hipólito Lima has dedicated 26 years of his life to sea turtle conservation, protecting sea turtle females and their nests, monitoring the nesting beaches, training local rangers, and empowering local communities into sea turtle guardians and conservation leaders. His leadership has been crucial in lobbying the government for the establishment of legislation that would provide protection for sea turtles in the archipelago. This new legislation declares a complete ban on the capture, possession, and sale of all sea turtle species and their by-products as well as disturbance of nesting habitats. He has dedicated his entire life to restoring and preserving what his father once destroyed.
You can watch Hipólito’s story below or read more here.
Dr. Carlos Lopes Pereira | Mozambique
Winner of the Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa 2019
In 2019 Dr. Carlos Lopes Pereira was awarded the lifetime achievement award by The Duke of Cambridge in recognition of his immeasurable impact in laying the foundations for protecting Mozambique’s natural resources, as well as building the institutional capacity to fight wildlife crime. At the awards ceremony in London, Tusk CEO, Charlie Mayhew said “Without the bravery and selfless dedication of the remarkable people we are honouring tonight, it would be an uncertain future for Africa’s iconic wildlife and the communities to whom it belongs.”
You can watch Carlos’s story below or read more here.
