6 October 2014: The Mexican environmental campaigner Martha Isabel ‘Pati’ Ruiz Corzo has been honored with the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) Wangari Maathai Award 2014 for her efforts to preserve forests and alleviate rural poverty in Mexico. A special Honorable Mention was given to the late Cambodian environmental activist Chut Wutty for his work to end illegal deforestation in Cambodia and protect the rights of indigenous forest dwellers.

Ruiz Corzo made conservation profitable for rural communities in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, successfully lobbied the Mexican government to create the reserve in 1997, and established conservation education and training programmes for local communities. Families that live in the reserve benefit from a payment for ecosystem services programme, receiving financial compensation for conserving and replanting trees. Ruiz Corzo’s organization, the Sierra Gorda Ecological Group, also helps protect forests by promoting alternatives to subsistence farming, such as beekeeping and eco-tourism. Ruiz Corzo received the US$20,000 award during the XXIV World Congress of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) in Salt Lake City, US.

Wutty was killed in 2012 while bringing journalists to visit an area of suspected illegal activity.

The Wangari Maathai Award recognizes “extraordinary efforts” by an individual to improve and sustain forests and the people who depend on them, and was established by the CPF to honor the memory of Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the second time the CPF has presented the awared since its 2012 launch. [CPF Announcement]