Sandra Lavorel
Sandra Larovel
Sandra Lavorel is among a trio of international researchers awarded the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation. Sandra, and fellow ecologists Mark Westoby (Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia) and Sandra Díaz (National University of Córdoba, Argentina), were recognised for expanding the concept of biodiversity through their pioneering work to discover, describe, and coordinate the measurement of the functional characteristics of plants. The catalogue of these functional traits has now become a vast database, added to and used by researchers around the world, for modelling the impact of global change on ecosystems and identifying mitigation measures.
Bev Clarkson
Bev Clarkson with Bruce Clarkson at The Kudos Awards
Bev Clarkson was recently recognised for a lifetime of work dedicated to restoration ecology at The Kudos Science Excellence Awards. Bev, and her husband Bruce, a botanist at the University of Waikato, were jointly awarded the Kudos Lifetime Achievement Award for leadership in the study of New Zealand’s terrestrial ecology. Bev is an honorary lecturer at the University of Waikato and a senior scientist at Manaaki Whenua. She is well known for her best practice handbook on wetland restoration,.
Phil Lyver
Phil Lyver
Phil Lyver (Ngāti Toarangatira ki Wairau) was awarded the 2020 NZ Ecological Society Te Tohu Taiao award for ecological excellence. Over the past 25 years he has had the privilege of working with tangata whenua and Indigenous communities around the world engaging traditional knowledge systems (mātauranga) with science-based approaches to determine state and change in populations and ecosystems, and the cascading effect of those changes on cultures. Phil was a member of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel advising the establishment and first thematic assessments of IPBES, and co-Chair for the aligned Indigenous and Local Knowledge Task Force.
John Innes
John Innes
John Innes was recently the recipient of a special award dedicated to his long years working in kōkākō recovery in the North Island. At a celebration of progress at the Pureora ecosanctuary to mark the 2000th kōkākō breeding pair, largely thanks to the work of community groups, iwi and scientists working together since the late 1970s to learn about the birds and to attempt large-scale rat control on the mainland, John was presented with a carved fencepost by Adrian Rurawhe, MP for Te Tai Hauāuru.