Owl Awards 2021

BirdLife South Africa presents worthy recipients with Owl Awards in recognition of their outstanding efforts to help ‘give conservation wings’.

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EAGLE-OWL AWARDS

Geoff Lockwood

As manager of the Delta Environmental Centre in Johannesburg for many years, Geoff has developed numerous skills relating to nature conservation and environmental education, with a strong focus on birds and their behaviour. His involvement with breeding owls at the centre has been the subject of many presentations, helping to create awareness of the need to protect raptors in urban areas. Participation in a study of African Grass Owls in a residential development near Irene led to a stint as co-chair of a working group for this Vulnerable species, in which Geoff made a significant contribution to plans for its conservation. A popular guide and speaker, he is active in several bird clubs and has been involved in the West Rand Honorary Rangers’ annual birding weekends in the Kruger National Park since their inception.

Mabula Ground Hornbill Project

The Mabula Project is celebrating 21 years of conserving the Southern Ground-Hornbill. Since 1999, when the first group of these charismatic birds was released into the Mabula Private Game Reserve in Limpopo, the project has devised protocols for rearing second hatched chicks and releasing them into the wild under the mentorship of adult birds in ‘bush schools’. Offspring from these groups in due course disperse naturally and form pairs. Another major part of the project’s work is the provision of artificial nesting sites to replace natural ones that are being lost. Under the respected leadership of Lucy Kemp, the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project is widely recognised for its stellar research and reintroduction initiatives.

OWL AWARDS

Dullstroom Trout Farm