‘Green Oscar’ Awarded For Venezuelan Parrot Conservation
The Whitley Awards, sometimes known as the “Green Oscars”, recognize international conservation excellence in biodiversity-rich, resource-poor countries
by GrrlScientist for Forbes | @GrrlScientist
(Credit: Jon Paul Rodríguez / Whitley Fund for Nature)
Conservation ecologist and population modeler, Jon Paul Rodríguez, was recently recognized with the prestigious Whitley Gold Award by the UK-based non-governmental organization, the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN). This prize honors the three decades that he and his team have devoted to protecting the imperiled yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot, Amazona barbadensis, in Venezuela. The Gold Award is the WFN’s highest honor.
Jon Paul Rodríguez is a professor at the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigations), or IVIC, and co-founder and President of Provita, a Venezuelan conservation NGO that was established in 1987.
“My primary role has been on population modeling to design conservation strategies and general planning and oversight,” Professor Rodríguez said in email.
Thanks to Professor Rodríguez and his team’s concerted efforts to protect and conserve the parrots on Isla Margarita since the early 1990s, their number has increased from just 650 to more than 1,700.
