Kenyan scientist wins global award in animal conservation
Dr Abdullahi, who hails from Garissa was feted with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Animal Action Awards held in London.
A Kenyan scientist Dr. Abdullahi Ali has received one of the prestigious wildlife awards for his conservation efforts to protect the critically endangered hirola antelope.
Dr Abdullahi, who hails from Garissa was feted with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Animal Action Awards held in London.
The award celebrates individuals who have dedicated their lives to rescue and conservation efforts that make a lasting difference.
Dr. Abdullahi is the founder of the Hirola Conservation Program (HCP), an initiative focused on saving the hirola antelope—one of the world’s most endangered mammals, with only about 500 remaining.
Since 2014, he has led efforts that combine habitat restoration, climate action, and community-based conservation across northeastern Kenya.
He began his conservation journey in 2005 after the Kenya Wildlife Service appointed him to head the Hirola Management Committee.
Through HCP, he has spearheaded groundbreaking research, including GPS tracking of hirolas to study their ecology, and replanting grasses vital to their survival after habitat loss caused by elephant poaching in the 1980s.
“Climate change is a major challenge in northeastern Kenya. We rescue and feed wildlife displaced by droughts or floods—sometimes even crocodiles—and work with KWS to return them safely to their habitats,” Dr. Abdullahi said.
Despite limited funding, as donors often favor more prominent species like elephants and lions, HCP has restored 10,000 acres of rangeland and reduced poaching through a network of 40 community rangers.
His organization also launched the Somali Giraffe Project in 2017 to conserve the endangered reticulated giraffe and pioneered the first GPS satellite tracking of giraffes in northeastern Kenya.
Dr. Abdullahi’s leadership extends globally. He chairs the Kenya Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology, serves on several IUCN specialist groups, is a National Geographic Explorer, and a fellow of the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE program.
Growing up in Garissa, northeastern Kenya—within the hirola’s historic range—Dr. Ali overcame many challenges to pursue education.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology, a master’s in conservation biology from the University of Nairobi, and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Wyoming, where he won the Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award in 2016.
His outstanding work has earned him numerous international honors, including the Whitley Fund for Nature y Fund for Nature Award, National Geographic/Buffett Award for Conservation Leadership, Disney Conservation Hero Award, and the Humane Hero Award.
“Dr. Ali’s dedication, innovation, and resilience are exemplary,” said James Isiche, IFAW’s Africa Director.
“I congratulate Dr. Ali on winning the lifetime achievement award. What Dr Ali has accomplished takes resilience and discipline. This win should create much-needed global awareness of the little-known and highly endangered hirola antelope and help mobilise much-needed resources to do more not just for the antelope but for wildlife species in North Kenya in general,” he added.