The Partnership’s 2020 Biodiversity Champion Award Winners
Our Biodiversity Champion Awards aim to acknowledge and celebrate the individuals and organisations who get on and do things to help our wildlife in North East Scotland, and help others to enjoy and understand its importance. Here are our 2020 Award Winners.
Back in 2017, the Partnership presented our first round of Biodiversity Champion Awards. While the decline of our wildlife can often seem “too big” or “to difficult” for any individual to tackle, our winners show that lots of small actions added together do make a difference. Hopefully they inspire you to follow their example, join in and help turn around the Biodiversity Crisis recognised by the Scottish Government.
Our 2020 Seminar and Awards day was originally planned for 20th March 2020, as part of Climate Week North East 2020. Sadly, like many public events, this had to be cancelled due to health concerns regarding the COVID-19 virus. Initially we had hoped to simply delay the event until later in the year However, it later became clear that we would no longer be able to host even a very small in-person presentation for our award winners.
Instead, we have recorded a video presentation introducing each of our award winners, kindly contributed by our Awareness & Involvement Group Chair, Ewen Cameron. Alongside this, we are delighted to have a video message from Mairi Gougeon (Minister of Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment from June 2018-December 2020, and MSP for Angus North and Mearns) who would have been presenting the awards in-person to the winners at the original event in March 2020.
Biodiversity Champions
NESBats – The North East Scotland Bat Group
Course Manager Richard Mullen from Banchory Golf Club
Beth and Roger Polson from Knock Farm, Huntly
Matthew Agnew from the Bin Rangers Club
Kirsten Dickson from the Aberdeen Wildlife Watch Group
Cally Smith from the Huntly & District Swift Group
The Huntly and District Development Trust
Dan Gordon from Kirkside Farm, Banff
The Branching Out South Aberdeenshire Group
Lifetime Achievement Award
David Welch
The Award Winners
The 2020 Award winners were all nominated by members of the Partnership’s Management Group, Steering Group and Awareness & Involvement Group. We asked these members to put forward the names of individuals or groups who they thought deserved to be recognised for making a real difference for their local environment. These nominations were then whittled down to ten Biodiversity Champion Awards and one Lifetime Achievement Award.
While we are sadly unable to host the more traditional celebration our award winners deserve, the Partnership would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations and thanks to all the 2020 Award Winners. You have all gone out there and made a real difference for your local environment, and we think you are truly an inspiration to others.
So if you are sitting at home right now, feeling inspired from learning about our award winners, the question is – what are you now going to do to help your local biodiversity?
Why not start by looking the through the News, Projects and other Pages on our website. You can also follow our Facebook Page and join our online Wildlife Gardening Group.
Biodiversity Champion Award