A young British Conservationist has won the international award for helping to
create a new model of community-run Marine Protected Areas, which both saves
marine diversity and helps to feed marine dependent communities.

Alasdair Harris, 30, was selected as winner of the 2010 Young Conservationist
Award, an award by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and the
International Ranger Federation which honours outstanding achievements by young
people in the world's protected areas.

In Madagascar, Alasdair established Blue Ventures, a conservation organisation
dedicated to working with local communities to conserve threatened marine
environments. In 2004 Blue Ventures launched the region's first community-run
Marine Protected Area (MPA), which resulted in significant increases in fishing
yields and size, increasing earnings of fishers.

Within a year, Madagascar's government adopted the model to create seasonal
fishing bans throughout Madagascar, and within two years, other villages
independently adopted it. It became `Velondriake'—meaning `to live with the
sea'—the largest community-managed MPA in the Indian Ocean, providing a regional
blueprint for community-based marine and coastal conservation planning

Alasdair avoided top down conservation by working with coastal communities to
develop his ideas and create social enterprises to ensure sustainable financing
of conservation efforts. Blue Ventures organizes expeditions of scientists and
volunteers to support conservation while bringing economic and environmental
benefit to local communities.

"Alasdair's outstanding work has benefited the marine environment and local
people in Madagascar. It has shown that the involvement of local people with
conservation can result in benefits to the environment and to people's
livelihoods. We warmly congratulate Alasdair on his leadership and well deserved
award. We look forward to his further contributions to the global challenge of
conservation." says Nik Lopoukhine, Chair of the IUCN World Commission Protected
Areas.

Velondriake's communities have led grassroots education efforts to help other
villages establish dozens of further marine reserves in Madagascar. This year
Blue Ventures replicated its work in Malaysia, Fiji and Belize, and supported
the Indian Ocean's first international fishermen exchange, with the Mauritian
islands. Blue Ventures' vision is to scale this model for maximum impact:
thousands of tropical marine communities in the Indian Ocean could benefit from
this approach to marine conservation.

"This award is an incredible honour, but also a reminder of the sobering reality
of the condition of our oceans today" says Alasdair. "Throughout the world
fisheries are collapsing on an unimaginable scale.  In the tropics, many coastal
people are already among the most marginalised communities on earth, acutely
vulnerable to the impacts of developed-world over-consumption and climate
change.  In these environments conservation is not just about protecting coral
reefs and biodiversity – it's about ensuring the survival of people and the
fragile ecosystems they depend upon. This award is testament to the commitments
of some of the world's poorest communities to finding a sustainable future. 
Never has the need for commitments like these been greater."

Alasdair will soon be in Australia to be presented with the award at the Healthy
Parks Healthy People Congress in Melbourne, Australia, this April.

"The IUCN-IRF Young Conservationist Award honours the contribution of young
people to conservation. Many of us in the world of Protected Areas know that
local communities are and will be the key to taking care of these special
places" says Deanne Adams, President of the International Ranger Federation.
"The work that Al has done is an inspiring model for engaging local fisherman in
identifying and managing sustainable conservation efforts. His work gives us
hope for our planet's future."

The Young Conservationist award is a joint initiative coordinated by the
International Ranger Federation and IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas,
and supported by the George Wright Society and Parks Victoria, Australia.