NBN Trust Announces Finalists for Wildlife Recording Awards 2024
The National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Trust has revealed the 35 individuals and organisations who have been short-listed as Finalists for the prestigious NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2024. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Thursday 21 November, 2024, during the NBN Conference in Liverpool.
This year, the NBN Trust has introduced two new categories – the NBN Lifetime Achievement Award and the NBN Verifier’s Award – to recognize the outstanding contributions of individuals and groups in the field of wildlife recording. The Trust received an overwhelming response with 60 nominations across all seven award categories.
NBN Trust CEO, Lisa Chilton, expressed the importance of the work done by wildlife recorders and verifiers, stating, “Monitoring the well-being of different species in different regions is crucial to our conservation efforts and reversing the loss of biodiversity. Many of these recorders and verifiers are unpaid volunteers who generously donate their time and expertise, and also inspire others to get involved. The NBN Awards are our way of showing our heartfelt appreciation to the unsung heroes of the UK’s wildlife recording community.”
Chilton also thanked the nominators for their efforts in recognizing these exceptional individuals and wildlife groups, without whom the awards would not be possible. She also expressed gratitude towards the Award Sponsors for their support.
The Finalists for the NBN Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 are Lin Baldock (from Dorset, England), Charlotte Bolton (from Dorset, England), Graham Calow (from Leicestershire, England), Stuart Crofts (from South Yorkshire, England), Roger Morris (from Surrey, England), and Stuart Ball (from Northamptonshire, England).
The Finalists for the NBN Verifier’s Award 2024 are Mark Cubitt (from West Lothian, Scotland), Alyson Freeman (from Lincolnshire, England), Stuart Roberts (from Wiltshire, England), Matt Smith (from Berkshire, England), and Barry Warrington (from East Yorkshire, England).
The Finalists for the NBN Award for Terrestrial Wildlife Recording 2024 are Katty Baird (from East Lothian, Scotland), Dave Bentley (from Greater Manchester, England), Rebecca Lewis (from Midlothian, Scotland), Paul Taylor (from Ceredigion, Wales), and Lisa Williams (from Staffordshire, England).
The Finalists for the NBN Award for Marine Wildlife Recording 2024 are Lin Baldock (from Dorset, England), Charlotte Bolton (from Dorset, England), Nic Coombey (from Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland), Steven Farquhar (from County Antrim, Northern Ireland), and Diane Westwood (from Norfolk, England).
The Finalists for the NBN Group Award 2024 are Amphibian and Reptile Groups of UK (ARG UK), Heartwood Forest wildlife monitoring group (from Hertfordshire, England), MammalWeb (UK-wide), Penwith Wildlife Recorders’ Group (from Cornwall, England), and Trent Valley Wildlife Recording Group (from Staffordshire, England).
The Finalists for the NBN Newcomer Award 2024 are Karen Fry (from Nottinghamshire, England), Charlotte Shenkin (from Jersey, Channel Islands), Margaret Stevens (from Leicestershire, England), Helen Whitehead (from West Midlands, England), and Kayleigh Woodhouse (from Nottinghamshire, England).
The Finalists for the NBN Young Person’s Award 2024 (open to individuals aged 11-20) are Henry Colnet (13 years old, from Suffolk, England), Holly Doherty (19 years old, from Inverness, Scotland), Max Loraine (14 years old, from Midlothian, Scotland), Aoife (18 years old, from County Down, Northern Ireland), Niamh (16 years old, from County Down, Northern Ireland), and Ben Rumsby (18 years old, from Essex, England).
The NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2024 are sponsored by RSPB, Opticron, Habitat Aid, Field Studies Council, William Collins, British Wildlife magazine, and Natural History Book Service (NHBS).
NBN Trust Communications Officer, Purba Choudhury, can be contacted for more information, photographs, and interviews with individual NBN Award Finalists at p.choudhury@nbn.org.uk or on 0115-850 0172.
The NBN Trust is a small charity with a big vision – to make data work for nature. For over two decades, the Trust has been making wildlife data accessible to support conservation efforts and connect people with nature. The NBN Atlas, managed by the Trust, is the UK’s largest repository of publicly available biodiversity data, with over 300 million records of 50,000+
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