The 2026 Tyler Prize Laureate, evolutionary biologist Dr. Toby Kiers, was honored for her pioneering research into the ways that underground fungal networks can play a critical role in sequestering CO2 and sustaining life on Earth. Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement was launched in 1973 by John and Alice C. Tyler as a means to support their shared passion for the environment. The Tyler’s also started a trust to support other conservation work; they have been a generous and sustaining partner to WiNN since our beginnings. Each year, the announcement of the Tyler Prize deepens the profound honor we feel in having our work included in their vision for a better world.

The Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY Awards) has awarded the 2025 Gold Medal in the Environment/Ecology category to Intertwined: Women, Nature, and Climate Justice to WiNN founding member Rebecca Kormos.

Reshu Bashal , a biologist from Nepal, was awarded a 2025 Whitley Award to improve the biodiversity of Nepal’s community forests by empowering local community forest groups to protect Nepal’s sensitive yew and orchid species. Reshu and her team at Greenhood Nepal will train community taskforces to clear invasive species, rehabilitate fallen orchids, identify instances of poaching, and plant 5,000 yews in five key forest areas. They are also use the award to work with the government to formalize the traditional harvest and trade of these species to better ensure traditional livelihoods are secure while also sustainable and protective of these species.

WiNN member Purnima Devi Barnam chosen as one of Time Magazine’s 2025 Women of the Year for her work saving the endangered Greater Adjutant stork!

Three women in the WiNN collective — Ankita Shah, Kayce Anderson, and Rebecca Kormos— were speakers at a TEDx event screened at watch parties and in homes around the world on January 19, 2025. All are women innovating solutions protecting habitats and species and increasing gender equity. Other speakers included Zainab Salbi from Daughters for Earth; Jacqueline Farmer from Nature Through Her Eyes/VII Foundation and many more inspiring women working on behalf of women and our planet!

Florence Aghoma was awarded the 2024 Young Women in Conservation Biology (YWCB) Award by the Society for Conservation Biology Africa Region’s Young Women in Conservation Biology initiative.

Purnima Devi Barman, a wildlife biologist from India, was awarded the 2024 Whitley Gold Award to continue her work to protect the Greater Adjutant Stork – or ‘hargila’ in the local language – and its wetland habitat. The work of Purnima and her “Hargila Army” comprised of thousands of local women have helped quadruple the number of local birds to more than 1,800. Looking ahead, Purnima now wants to double the global population of the bird to 5,000 by 2030, working across the stork’s range in India and Cambodia.
Read the full article here