London: Malaysian elephant conservationist Dr Nurzhafarina Othman has been awarded the prestigious 2025 Whitley Award by the UK-based Whitley Fund for Nature for her pioneering work in protecting Bornean elephants in Sabah. Nurzhafarina, founder and director of the non-profit conservation organisation Seratu Aatai and a senior lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah, received the £50,000 (about RM287,000) award from the charity’s Patron, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal at the Royal Geographical Society, London last night.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the Whitley Fund for Nature stated that it supports her efforts to save the remaining 300 Bornean elephants on the east coast of Sabah, where human-elephant conflict has intensified due to shrinking habitats. The award recognises her innovative approach to engaging palm oil stakeholders in the Lower Kinabatangan region to implement elephant-friendly practices and create protected corridor networks for the world’s smallest elephant species.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that Bornean elephants have lost 60 per cent of their forest habitat in the past four decades due to logging and palm oil cultivation. The species was listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List last year. Nurzhafarina’s project focuses on collaborating with both large palm oil companies and smallholders in the Lower Kinabatangan, where 40 per cent of the land is owned by 11 major palm oil companies, and there are about 150 independent smallholders.
Her initiative includes citizen science programmes, best practices for habitat connectivity, and contributions to the proposed Kinabatangan Biosphere Reserve. According to the statement, Seratu Aatai, established in 2018, is currently the only conservation organisation in Sabah exclusively dedicated to the conservation of the Bornean elephant. The project will also benefit other endangered species in the region, including orangutans, Sunda clouded leopards, and sun bears.
Nurzhafarina is among six conservationists worldwide to receive the 2025 Whitley Award. Since its inception in 1993, the Whitley Fund for Nature has provided £24 million in funding to 220 conservationists across 80 countries. Other award recipients include Brazilian Dr Yara Barros, Colombian Dr Andr©s Link, Argentina’s Dr Federico Kacoliris, Nepal’s Reshu Bashyal, and Indonesia’s Rahayu Oktaviani, each working on various conservation efforts in their respective regions.