CONSERVATION: UGANDAN WINS EMERGING CONSERVATIONIST HONOR

Mwezi Badru Mugerwa.

Indianapolis star

A Ugandan conservationist working to preserve the African golden cat won the second Emerging Conservationist award from the Indianapolis Prize.

Mwezi 'Badru' Mugerwa will receive a $50,000 award for his work within the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda.

He founded Embaka, a community-based organization to help the African golden cat, and established a first of its kind conservation program to combat poachers targeting the cat.

The Emerging Conservationist award is part of the biennial Indianapolis Prize and recognizes an early career conservationist under the age of 40. A prize committee chose Mugerwa from a pool of 10 finalists from around the globe.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Indianapolis Prize, a globally recognized honor for dedicated conservationists working to save animal species.

'Mwezi’s passion for involving the local community in conservation efforts is what makes him so worthy of receiving this award,' Rob Shumaker, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Zoological Society, said in a statement.

The African golden cat is an elusive species only found in the forests of equatorial Africa, and Mugerwa first began his work by setting up camera traps to take black and white photos of the cats in the wild.

Community members near where the golden cat lives helped Mugerwa understand how poaching was tied into the livelihood of the locals, who would trap them for bush meat.

Mugerwa founded Embaka in 2015 and has focused on involving communities in conservation efforts. The organization also offers programs including free oral health care and livestock in return for pledging to no longer poach the golden cats.

'Once you’re in the communities and you understand the problem: ‘I need money to pay my dentist bills.’ Well, what if I brought you a dentist? Once you explain that, it connects really well,' Mugerwa said in the statement from the zoological society. 'The communities hold the solutions, but if you don’t talk to them, you won’t know.'

Mugerwa’s work doesn’t stop with the African golden cat. He also serves as the president of the Society for Conservation Biology’s Africa region as well as the president-elect for Conservation Biology Global.

The Indianapolis Zoological Society awarded the inaugural Emerging Conservationist award in 2023 to Fanny Cornejo. Cornejo works to protect the yellow-tailed wooly monkey in Peru and is the executive director at Yunkawasi, which helps endangered species and engages rural and indigenous communities to protect and sustainably manage habitat.

Mugerwa and the Indianapolis Prize winner, who will receive $250,000, will be honored at a gala Sept. 27 in downtown Indianapolis.

IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.