Royal Geographic Society in London awards Rachel Graham

Rachel Graham

Belize’s own Dr. Rachel T. Graham was presented with a prestigious conservation award by no less than Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, at the Royal Geographic Society in London. Graham saved whale sharks from extinction in Belize and her twenty years of work to preserve the Jewel’s underwater wildlife won her the coveted Whitley Gold Award for 2011. The award is given by the UK based charity, Whitley Fund for Nature, and this year it was sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund-UK as part of its fiftieth anniversary celebrations. Graham is the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Gulf and Caribbean Sharks and Rays Program. She has been working to put in place a national action-plan to protect sharks, sting rays and other ocean species that attract tourists to our waters, but are threatened by overfishing. Along with a trophy, Graham was awarded just under two hundred thousand dollars in funding for her project. The following video, provided by the Whitley website, gives further insight to Graham’s project.

{Project video….}

This is the third consecutive year that the award was won by a female conservationist. Six other organizations from around the world also won funding for their projects.