Bonn,
15 May 2012 - CMS would like to express its congratulations
to Latin America’s most renowned bat researcher for
his outstanding conservation achievements. The Whitley Fund
for Nature bestowed its newly-created Gold Award to Rodrigo
Medellín on 9th May at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical
Society in London.

Professor Medellín has been teaching
conservation biology and community ecology for over 20 years
in Mexico City and other universities abroad. He specializes
in community ecology, plant-animal interactions, population
biology and, more recently, molecular ecology.

Thanks to his awareness training pertaining
to the vital role of bats in ecosystems, the general perception
of bats in Mexico and the rest of Latin America has dramatically
changed. During the Year of the Bat and in the run up to
Rio+20, his scientific findings have contributed substantially
to highlighting the environmental and economic benefits
bats that are able to provide regarding US cotton crops.

As a result of his conservation measures,
he recently achieved an outstanding and most rare success
in the conservation world. The lesser long-nosed bat will
no longer have to be included on Mexico’s Federal
List of Endangered Species.

For more information, please visit the
Whitley
Awards website.