Celebrating the North East's 2019 Young Wildlife Champions

"These young people are dynamic and inspirational; each and every one has a heartening, and in some cases humbling, story to tell"

An eight-year-old campaigner, a social media whizz kid, a budding nature detective and several keen camera trappers have all been recognised as 2019 Young Wildlife Champions by the North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership, in a drive to celebrate the contribution of youngsters to the protection of biodiversity in the North East.

Also marking the end of Scotland’s Year of Young People, the awards were presented by Gillian Martin MSP at the Partnership’s annual seminar, held at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, which included talks by young people on citizen science and conservation action delivered in the region.

Partnership co-ordinator Rose Toney said: “We are delighted to recognise the efforts of our young wildlife champions. These young people, including some as young as eight, are dynamic and inspirational. Each and every one has a heartening, and in some cases humbling, story to tell.  We were also delighted that several MSPs joined us to celebrate growing public understanding of why biodiversity is so important to all of us.

“We are fortunate to have an outstanding natural environment in the North East. The safeguarding of our amazing biodiversity is something that all ages can, and should, be involved in. When all these individual efforts are joined together, it can have a very powerful impact”.

The awards were open to the public to nominate Young Champions involved in all aspects of biodiversity, from celebrating wildlife through art to communicating important messages via social media, and volunteering in practical conservation action through to mentoring other up-and-coming biodiversity champions.

Supporters of the Partnership and the awards include Scotland’s Natural Heritage (SNH), RSPB, Forestry Commission Scotland, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray councils, as well as the James Hutton Institute.

Fiona Cruickshank, SNH operations officer, commented: “We’re delighted to support the North East Scotland Young Wildlife Champions Awards. We really enjoyed seeing the hard work of young conservationists recognised and celebrated this year. It was great to see some of our recent student placements share their experiences on the day, inspiring more young people to get involved in caring for our nature and wildlife.”

The North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership is one of four pilot partnerships set up 20 years ago and is actively supported by a range of organisations, as well as agencies, groups and individuals. Its work follows the aims and objectives set out in the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, 2020 Challenge for Scotland’s Biodiversity and Scotland’s Biodiversity a Route Map to 2020.

The Strategy and Route Map highlight the need to protect biodiversity for both its own sake but also because of the benefits the environment gives us such as the contribution of biodiversity to the Scottish economy (over £21.5 billion annually) and insect pollination services (valued at £43m per year).

A full list of 2019 Young Wildlife Champions is below:

• Aberdeen University Conservation Society
• Amber Stringer
• Archie Newbold
• Gus Routledge
• Joe Malster
• Katie Horton
• Matthew Wallace
• Simon Ritchie
• Thomas Truby

 Highly Commended:

• Aberdeen Wildlife Watch, Scottish Wildlife Trust - Sarella Arkkila and Anna Kjaer
• Banchory Primary P5’s Forest School - Lenny Tappenden, Bryn Alford & Noah Rogers
• The Bin Ranger Club
• Westpark School P2 Class Biodiversity Project.