Ninh Binh's conservationist receives Wayfinder Award 2022

The awardees will become members of the National Geographic Explorer and receive the cash prizes worth 50,000 USD each.

Thai was honoured for his endless contributions to wildlife conservation in Vietnam. He will spend his prize money on the work.

Thai founded Save Vietnam's Wildlife (SVW) in 2014. He established and has managed two pangolin rehabilitation centers in Cuc Phuong and Pu Mat National Parks.

He also set up an anti-poaching unit, the first of its kind in Vietnam, and helped forest rangers of national parks to use modern equipment and technology in forest patrols and protection.

SVW is a non-profit organization with the mission of preventing wildlife extinction and rescue endangered wildlife in Vietnam.

Since its establishment, SVW has rescued more than 2,125 wildlife animals, including 1,671 pangolins. Over 60 percent of them have been rehabilitated and released back to nature. SVW also opened the Carnivore and Pangolin Education Centre, the first of its kind in Vietnam, in order to provide wildlife conservation courses to local children and residents.

As a result, the law enforcement and forest protection in the Pu Mat National Park has been improved while threats to wildlife have been reduced by 80 percent and the number of wildlife animals in nature has increased.

The anti-poaching model was expanded to four other national parks in Vietnam in 2021.

Recipients of the 2022 Wayfinder Award, previously called the Emerging Explorer Award, are engaged in groundbreaking work that challenges the most entrenched stereotypes in the animal kingdom, focuses on inclusive and community-based conservation, blends social justice with ecological scientific research, and promotes racial literacy in education. 

Translated by Nguyen Thuy