The Whitley Fund for Nature looks for local leaders who are already succeeding and puts its money where it really counts, and this year, awarded its top honour to a Kenyan environmentalist whose decades of work with local communities and groups has meant its lion population is growing outside fenced and protected areas.

Believing local leadership is crucial for sustained solutions, the fund has given £20 million to support the work of more than 200 grassroots conservation leaders in more than 80 countries across the Global South. Each year one of those 200 past Whitley Award winners receives the Whitley Gold Award – worth £100,000 of project funding – in recognition of their outstanding contribution to conservation.