This year was the 20th anniversary of the Whitley Prize, also known as the “Green Oscar.” This award is given annually by the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) to recognize and celebrate effective national and regional conservation leaders across the globe.

The 2013 Whitley Awards Ceremony was held May 2 at The Royal Geographical Society in London. Among this year’s winners was Eugene Simonov a Russian environmentalist who crossed an entire continent to help create a network of stakeholders interested in river conservation along the Chinese and Mongolian borders, where dam-building on a monumental scale threatens fragile wetland ecosystems in the birthplace of the legendary Genghis Khan.

The Amur River basin is the largest still free-flowing transboundary river system of Asia and is internationally recognized for the importance of its migratory fish and floodplain wetlands. Known as Black Dragon River, the Amur River is also home for the largest sturgeon and salmon in the world (Kaluga and Siberian Taimen respectively).

Read more:  http://whitleyaward.org/winners/keeping-rivers-wild-and-free/
Read more about the Whitley Award: http://whitleyaward.org/
Read more about taimen conservation in Mongolia: https://troutheadwaters.com/clubecoblu/?cat=736