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Fanny Cornejo, who works to protect the critically endangered yellow-tailed woolly monkey in Peru, is the first winner of the Emerging Conservationist Award, Indianapolis Zoological Society officials announced Tuesday.
The Emerging Conservationist Award is a new honor affiliated with the Indianapolis Prize, a leading award for animal conservation.
Cornejo will receive $50,000 to spend on her work in the Andes Mountains. The award will be presented every other year to a conservationist younger than 40.
The Indianapolis Prize awards $250,000 to a conservationist for major achievements in advancing the sustainability of an animal species or a group of species. Cornejo and the yet-to-be-announced 2023 Indianapolis Prize winner will be saluted during a Sept. 30 gala in Indianapolis.
The Emerging Conservationist Award is supported by the Kobe Foundation, an Indianapolis-based charity founded by Trey Fehsenfeld. His mother, Suzanne Fehsenfeld, co-founded the Mara Elephant Project.
Yellow-tailed woolly monkeys, classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, were seen in 2018 in a region of Peru about 125 miles south of the monkeys’ known range.
Yunkawasi, a conservation organization Cornejo founded with her mother, the late Fanny Fernandez Melo, works with Amazonian and Andean communities to protect the monkeys and other endangered wildlife.
Cornejo earned a master’s degree from New York’s Stony Brook University in 2015.
“Fanny is leading the next generation of conservationists to protect nature and inspire people to care for our world,” Rob Shumaker, CEO of the Indianapolis Zoological Society, said in a prepared statement. “The depth of accomplishments set her apart from the other nominees. I can’t wait to see the impact of her career in conservation.”
Cornejo was one of 10 finalists announced for the Emerging Conservationist Award. The others:
- Alejandro Arteaga, Ecuador
- Sergio Balaguera-Reina, United States
- Akbar John, Malaysia
- Corinne Kendall, United States
- Arthur Bienvenu Muneza, Namibia
- Megan Murgatroyd, United States
- Nguyen Van Thai, Vietnam
- Olivier Nsengimana, Rwanda
- Stephanie Vaz Nogueira Campos, Brazil
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