Fanny Minesi selected for 2023 Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa
Fanny Minesi, director of Friends of Bonobos of Congo (ABC), has received the prestigious 2023 Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa. She accepted the award from HRH The Prince of Wales at an event held at the Savoy in London on November 27, 2023.
The award, now in its 11th year, was created to recognize an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to conservation and is judged to be an emerging conservation leader.
"Fanny was an obvious winner for our award celebrating an inspiring emerging conservationist,” said chief Executive of Tusk Charlie Mayhew OBE.
“Uncompromising in her broad and far-reaching vision and already so accomplished, Fanny has many years ahead of her and tremendous potential to positively influence not only the fate of the endangered bonobo, but also, the future of the field of Congo-based conservation.”
Minesi was honored for her comprehensive strategy to tackle the root causes of bonobo endangerment – poverty, lack of education and economic opportunity. She leads ABC’s efforts to rescue, rehabilitate, and rewild bonobos, expand and manage the Ekolo ya Bonobo Community Reserve, and conserve rainforest.
“I am thankful and feel really honored to win this award,” Minesi said. “And I accept it in the name of my team, because nothing would be possible without them, my amazing team.”
“... nothing would be possible without them, my amazing team."
Among Minesi’s achievements, she vastly expanded the Ekolo ya Bonobo Community Reserve; worked with governmental authorities to establish Ekolo as a provincial Protected Area; partnered with indigenous communities to protect the reserve and to implement poverty alleviation, education, and health care projects; and managed the rewilding of a group of bonobos.
Ekolo, now at 117,000 acres and growing, is the only Protected Area in the DRC managed by an NGO in collaboration with local communities; the government provides technical support rather than co-managing.
Minesi accomplished all of this over the last nine years while simultaneously working with DRC legal entities to rescue 41 bonobo orphans from the criminal trade of poaching endangered wildlife; operating a rehabilitation sanctuary and education center for 70+ bonobos and initiating environmental education programs that have reached more than 27,000 people in remote areas plagued by bushmeat hunting and more than 380,000 in DR Congo.
Candor Bourne, director of conservation partnership at Friends of Bonobos-US, and Fanny’s nominator said; “Working in conservation in DRC long-term requires incredible personal strength and a belief that, even when a day feels like “one step forward, two steps back,” your efforts will pay off in the end. Fanny has this strength and optimism.”
The Tusk Conservation Awards, in partnership with Ninety One, were created to honor the heroes of African conservation and help tell their stories to the world. Previous winners of the Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa include Miguel Gonçalves from Mozambique (2022), Julie Razafimanahaka from Madagascar (2021), John Kamanga from Kenya (2020) and Tomas Diagne from Senegal (2019).
Tusk also bestows the Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa and the Tusk Wildlife Ranger Award each year. Learn about this year’s winners.