NBN Trust Announces Finalists for 2024 Awards for Wildlife Recording
On Wednesday, September 25th, 2024, the NBN Trust, in partnership with the Biological Records Centre and the National Forum for Biological Recording, revealed the 35 individuals and organizations who have been short-listed as Finalists for the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2024. These prestigious awards recognize and celebrate the outstanding contributions and achievements of wildlife recorders and verifiers in the UK.
The winners will be announced on Thursday, November 21st, at the NBN Conference in Liverpool. This year, the awards feature two new categories – the NBN Lifetime Achievement Award and the NBN Verifier’s Award. The NBN Trust received a total of 60 nominations, spanning all seven award categories:
– NBN Lifetime Achievement Award 2024– NBN Verifier’s Award 2024– NBN Award for Terrestrial Wildlife Recording 2024– NBN Award for Marine Wildlife Recording 2024– NBN Group Award 2024– NBN Newcomer Award 2024– NBN Young Person’s Award 2024 (open to individuals aged 11-20)
Lisa Chilton, CEO of the NBN Trust, expresses the importance of the work of wildlife recorders and verifiers, stating, “We can’t overstate the importance of the work that wildlife recorders and verifiers do! Monitoring how different species are faring in different parts of the country is vital to our conservation efforts and reversing biodiversity loss.” She also acknowledges the dedication and voluntary efforts of these individuals, along with the impact they have on inspiring others to get involved. Chilton thanks the nominators for their submissions and the Award Sponsors for their support.
The NBN Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 Finalists are Lin Baldock, Charlotte Bolton, Graham Calow, Stuart Crofts, Roger Morris, and Stuart Ball. The NBN Verifier’s Award 2024 Finalists are Mark Cubitt, Alyson Freeman, Stuart Roberts, Matt Smith, and Barry Warrington.
For the NBN Award for Terrestrial Wildlife Recording 2024, the Finalists are Katty Baird, Dave Bentley, Rebecca Lewis, Paul Taylor, and Lisa Williams. The NBN Award for Marine Wildlife Recording 2024 Finalists are Lin Baldock, Charlotte Bolton, Nic Coombey, Steven Farquhar, and Diane Westwood.
The NBN Group Award 2024 Finalists include Amphibian and Reptile Groups of UK (ARG UK), Heartwood Forest Wildlife Monitoring Group, MammalWeb, Penwith Wildlife Recorders’ Group (PWRG), and Trent Valley Wildlife Recording Group.
The NBN Newcomer Award 2024 Finalists are Karen Fry, Charlotte Shenkin, Margaret Stevens, Helen Whitehead, and Kayleigh Woodhouse. And the NBN Young Person’s Award 2024 (open to individuals aged 11-20) Finalists are Henry Colnet, Holly Doherty, Max Loraine, Aoife, Niamh, and Ben Rumsby.
The NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2024 are made possible by the generous support of seven organizations: RSPB, Opticron, Habitat Aid, Field Studies Council, William Collins, British Wildlife magazine, and Natural History Book Service (NHBS).
For more information, photographs, and to arrange interviews with individual NBN Award Finalists, please contact Purba Choudhury, NBN Trust Communications Officer, via p.choudhury@nbn.org.uk or on 0115-850 0172.
About the National Biodiversity Network Trust:The National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) is a small charity with a big mission – to make data work for nature. For over 20 years, the NBN Trust has been making wildlife data accessible to support better decisions about the natural world and connect people with nature. The NBN Trust manages the NBN Atlas, the UK’s largest repository of publicly available biodiversity data, as well as iNaturalistUK. They also support the National Biodiversity Network, a collaboration of around 200 organizations committed to sharing UK wildlife data and making it easily accessible. The NBN Atlas currently holds over 300 million records of over 50,000 species. Members of the National Biodiversity Network include well-known organizations such as the RSPB, National Trust, Butterfly Conservation, and Woodland Trust, as well as lesser-known groups such as Longhorn Beetle Recording Scheme, Riverfly Partnership, and Outer Hebrides Recording Group. The NBN Trust thanks all data providers who share their biodiversity data via the NBN Atlas.
By “wildlife recording,” the NBN Trust refers to the surveying of wildlife in one’s local area and submitting records of these sightings to a local or national