10th edition of theBBVA Foundation Awards for Biodiversity Conservation

The BBVA Foundation recognizes the work of the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, a Mexican NGO fighting to save the monarch butterfly, and wildlife artist Juan Varela

  • The BBVA Foundation Awards for Biodiversity Conservation, now into their 10th edition, distinguish efforts to prevent the destruction of our natural heritage while fostering knowledge, projects and social awareness around issues of ecology and conservation biology
  • The award for Biodiversity Conservation Projects in Spain has been granted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office forEnvironment and Land Planningin recognition of its vital role in preventing and prosecuting environmental offences nationwide
  • In the category ofBiodiversity Conservation Projects in Latin America, the accolade goes to the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN) for its success in protecting the monarch butterfly in its winter havens, achieved through a novel approach involving local communities
  • The winner in the Knowledge Dissemination and Communication in Biodiversity Conservation category is wildlife artistJuan Varela,whose outstanding studies of plants and animals, combining beauty and descriptive accuracy, keep alive the tradition of scientific illustration while serving as inspiration to new generations of illustrators of the natural world

Madrid,September 11,2015.- The BBVA Foundation has bestowed itsBiodiversity Conservation Awards in their three categories on the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Environment and Land Planning, the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN), and wildlife illustrator Juan Varela.

Species extinction and ecosystem deterioration are among the most pressing environmental problems of our time. Tackling these problems is an inescapable challenge for the society of the 21st century, because what we risk losing is not just tangible environmental assets and services and a gene pool of immense evolutionary value, but also a moral, cultural and aesthetic heritageirreplaceable for humanity. It is for this reason that the BBVA Foundation Awards for Biodiversity Conservation have striven over the last decadeto promote knowledge, action and awareness in the areas of ecology and conservation biology.

The BBVA Foundation Awards for Biodiversity Conservationdistinguish individuals and institutionsthat have advanced understanding of the biodiversity crisis,and have also marshaled that knowledge to implement informed actions on the ground or to influence public opinionby means of outreach and awarenessraising. Hence the division of the awards into three categories, two of them recognizing conservation actions in Spain and Latin America, and one reserved for achievements in communication.

A further hallmark of the BBVA Foundation Awards for Biodiversity Conservation is the independence of the selection jury, made up of scientific researchers, communicators and NGOs engaging in biodiversity preservation. Their three categories carry a combined cash prize of 580,000 euros, placing them among the foremost international awards in the environment area.

This year’s winners

SPAIN–The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Environment and Land Planningreceives theBBVA Foundation Award for Biodiversity Conservation Projects in Spain in this tenth edition, “for its work of almost a decade in defense of legality, an effort that is vital for the prosecution of environmental offences and the protection of natural spaces and their biodiversity,” in the words of the jury’s citation.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Environment and Land Planning, headed by chief prosecutor Antonio Vercher, was created in 2006, and has since stepped up the prosecution of environmental offences in Spain. Nature being a public good, the state must equip itself with instruments for the ex-officio prosecution of actions prejudicial to the common interest. This is the task ably conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Environment and Land Planning. In the view of the judges, its work“has been instrumental in reducing forest fires, urban planning corruption, atmospheric pollution, the illegal trafficking of species, cruelty to animals andthe use of poisoned bait, and in the conservation of resources such as water.” The jury also states that the Public Prosecutor’s Office “has invariably based its work on the best scientific evidence” and has contributed to “a deeper understanding of the causes of environmental crime and an approach geared to the prevention of attacks on nature.”

LATINAMERICA –The award forBiodiversity Conservation Projects in Latin America has gone to the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN)in recognition of efforts spanning almost a decade to preserve the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus).The monarch is, in the words of the jury,“one of the planet’s landmark invertebrate species, known for its extraordinary migratory journey of over 5,000 kilometers between Canadaand Mexico, a unique phenomenon that is also intensely vulnerable to climate change.” The monarch butterfly, asymbol of the dazzling richness of the natural world, is exposed to numerous pressures and dangers throughout its extensive dispersal and complex life cycle. But it is its wintering grounds in central Mexico that hold the key to the species’ survival.

The FMCNoperates in this high-value geographical area, not only conserving the monarch butterfly’s ecosystembut also mobilizing the support and involvement of the local population through a system of payment for environmental services.This last elementis described by the jury as “an innovative financing mechanism that contributes decisively to ecosystem preservation, the result of effective, coordinated working with local communities, government agencies and national and international conservationist organizations.”

COMMUNICATION–The award forKnowledge Dissemination and Communication in Biodiversity Conservationis bestowed on illustratorJuan Varela Simó, “for his continuous and longstanding work in favor of nature conservation in Spain and other countries, through a highly creative illustrative output.” The jury singled out “his superb realist representations of animals and plants, whichhave appeared in a wide range of media from encyclopedias and books to documentary films by way of other educational and environmental awareness materials.”

A biologist by training, Juan Varela has devoted his professional life to illustration, bringing new ideas to a discipline identified for centuries with scientific exploration. Far from being superseded by photography or new digital formats, wildlife illustration conserves its force as avehicle for scientific knowledge,while providing added aesthetic and emotive values that are hard to achieve by other means.

Juan Varela’s selfless collaboration with scientific and conservationist organizations has earned himnational andinternational repute as a wildlife artist. Not only that, “his ongoing engagement with the training of new illustratorsensures the continuity of an artistic disciplineof key importance in relaying to society the importance of biological diversity,” the jury concluded.

A decade of support for biodiversity

Since they were established in 2004, the BBVA Foundation Awards for Biodiversity Conservation have conferred recognition and visibility on biodiversityresearch (initially as a discrete category, and in the last eight years as part of the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards family), groundbreaking practical initiatives in Spain and Latin America carried out by organizations and institutions of varying size(locally focused NGOs and others with a supranational or global reach) and condition (some emerging from citizen campaigns, others belonging to diverse branches of the public administration), and outstanding examples of communication and awareness creationaround the importance of halting the loss of our planet’s biological wealth.

The protection of important bird areas, wetlands or drovers’ road networks in Spain, of bats in Mexico and the southern right whale in Argentina; the defense of Mediterranean biodiversity and the work of the Guardia Civil’s Servicio de Protección de la Naturaleza (Seprona) are just some of the projects honored in past editions. Laureates in thecommunication and dissemination area, meantime, are drawn from the most diverse branches of journalism, agency, written or photographic;audiovisual production, publishing and illustration.

The prize jury

The jury in this edition was chaired by Rafael Pardo, Director of the BBVA Foundation, with membersAlberto Aguirre de Cárcer, Director of daily newspaperLa Verdad, Murcia; Joaquín Araújo, writer and naturalist; Juan Carlos del Olmo, General Secretary ofWWF España; Pablo Jaúregui, Science Editor on newspaperEl Mundo; Begoña Peco, Professor of Ecology in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Cristina Ribas, President of the Catalan Association of Scientific Communication; Asunción Ruiz, Executive Director of SEO/BirdLife;andRafael Zardoya, Research Professor at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC).

For more information, contact the BBVA Foundation Department of Communicatin and Institutional Relations(+34 913745210;915373769: 91 455 33 68/)or visit