Professor from Los Andes is awarded the Sabin Award for Primate Conservation

Andrés Link, professor in the Faculty of Business Administration at the Universidad de Los Andes, was given an award in the ‘Primates’ category for his contributions to conservation in Colombia.

“Conservation of species in danger depends on people who are passionate about and dedicated to protecting them”, said Don Church, president and director of conservation at Global Wildlife Conservation.

“The Sabin Conservation Awards are an opportunity to recognize these guardians of our wildlife and wilderness on a global scale”, he added after presenting the award to Link and three other researchers from different parts of the world.

Andrés Link has spent close to two decades studying spider monkeys’ social relationships in Colombia and Ecuador with an emphasis on how they compete against and cooperate with each other.

His research has increased our understanding of the effects of the degradation and fragmentation of habitat in terms of the ecology and dynamism of the population of neotropical primates.

Link does more than just research as he educates the next generation of field biologists. He also works with local communities to improve livelihoods and preserve tropical forests and the ecosystems on which the communities and their primate neighbors depend.

The Sabin 2018 Conservation Awards and the award ceremony are possible thanks to the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation. Sabin has donated more than US$20 million to wildlife conservation efforts over the past forty years. He has helped high-impact conservation with specific projects throughout the world, participated in conservation projects, preserving more than 250,000 acres of critical habitat, and protected more than eighty species.

“These annual prizes are an opportunity to highlight the champions of conservation throughout the whole world”, said Andy Sabin, businessman and environmentalist.

“There are many people working on species who do not receive very much coverage in the conventional media. By recognizing these champions, we hope to make their work more important and show how we all benefit from their tireless efforts to preserve the web of life in our planet”.