Dr. David Western, founding executive director of Kenya’s African Conservation Centre, has been named the 2010 winner of the World Ecology Award.

The World Ecology Award is presented by Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center to a prominent figure who has made significant contributions or has drawn international attention to conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems.

The Harris World Ecology Center is an education and research institution based at University of Missouri-St. Louis, in partnership with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the St. Louis Zoo. It is internationally renowned for its graduate research program in tropical ecology and biodiversity.

The award is given to scientists who have made significant contributions and to well-known public figures who use their prominence to promote conservation issues. Past recipients include Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey, Peter Raven, Harrison Ford and Jacques Cousteau.

The award has been a prestigious prize since it was established in 1990 and was presented to the first winner, John Denver, according to Dr. Patrick Osborne, executive director of the Harris World Ecology Center.

“There are a number of things we look for in an awardee,” Osborne said. “We want someone with name recognition, who has done a substantial amount of work in conservation biology.”

“[Western] rose to the top because of his significant contribution to African ecology over many years. He has been working now in [Kenya’s] Amboseli National Park for 37 years,” Osborne said. Osborne noted that Western’s involvement in public policy and administration, not just research, was also a strength.

Western, who was born in Tanzania but is now a Kenyan citizen, is chairman and founder of the African Conservation Centre in Nairobi. He has headed several conservation organizations including: Wildlife Conservation Society international programs, Kenya’s Wildlife Planning Unit and Kenya Wildlife Service. He also founded the International Ecotourism Society. He is adjunct professor in biology at the University of California, San Diego, and author of “Conservation for the Twenty-first Century,” “Natural Connections: Perspectives in Community-based Conservation” and “In the Dust of Kilimanjaro.”

“He also developed a program called ‘Parks within Parks,’ which was basically getting the local people to be involved in conservation,” Osborne said. “I think that was perhaps one of his most significant contributions. The local people actually got some revenue from the national parks directly and could see the benefit and the value of the parks rather than being sort of outside, seeing people come into their land to view the animals but not getting any benefit from it.”

“My work has been a combination of research on the ground, national planning [and] international work,” Western said. “My work really began with Amboseli, which is an area in southern Kenya … where I was looking at how traditional people and wildlife co-existed, with a view to coming up with a different approach to conservation where setting aside parks doesn’t mean depriving local people of their land and their rights.”

Western will attend when the award is presented May 7 at a gala dinner at the Missouri Botanical Garden. He has been here before and has worked with Peter Raven at the Missouri Botanical Garden and with Eric Miller at the St. Louis Zoo.

“One [of my newest projects] is with the Missouri Botanical Garden, and other agencies, on climate change and the impact it is going to have on biodiversity and livelihoods in the east African region,” Western said. The program will look at how climate affects the wildlife and the parks, and the different kind of planning needed as global change really becomes a major threat for wildlife populations,” he said.