Fitry is one of nine winners of the prestigious 2014 annual Whitley Awards, the so-called Green Oscars, which recognize conservation leaders across the globe.

The 41-year-old lecturer and researcher won for leading work protecting the largest remaining aggregation of leatherback turtles in the Pacific, on Jamursba Medi and Wermon beaches, and for empowering a community.

The Shears Foundation through the Whitley Fund for Nature awarded a total of £35,000 (US$58,565) in installments for the conservation and community empowerment work that Fitry and her team at the State University of Papua (UNIPA) have done and will do.

“I am very thankful for the fund because it will enable us to expand the advocacy program in more villages for at least 10 months,” Fitry told The Jakarta Post recently. She has been teaching in the university’s agriculture and agricultural technology department since 1998.
UNIPA sent a crew of eight to monitor and guard nests and hatchlings on the beach led by conservationist Ricardo F. Tapilatu*.

Notes from AMINEF:
1. Fitryanti Pakiding is a Fulbright program alum earning her Master’s in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State University (OSU) in 2003, and conducting her post-doc research at Cornell University in 2012-2013. She earned her Ph.D. from OSU with a scholarship from that university. She is a faculty member of State University of Papua (UNIPA)
2. Ricardo F. Tapilatu is also a Fulbright grantee pursuing his Ph.D. in Marine Conservation and Development at the University of Alabama. He is also a faculty member of UNIPA.
3. Full article could be accessed by going to the following:http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/06/06/fitryanti-pakiding-saving-turtles-helping-people.html

Article by Netty Dharma Somba of the Jakarta Post, June 06 2014.