By Mohamed T. Massaquoi
The founder and director of Sierra Leone's Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (TCS) has been nominated for the 2020 Indianapolis Prize, which is one of the world’s leading awards for animal conservation.
Bala Amarasekaran will be competing with about a dozen other conservationists across the world for the coveted award.
The nominating committee and jury will select six finalists and determine a winner, who will be honored at the Indianapolis Prize Gala slated for September 12, 2020.
The Indianapolis Prize, first awarded in 2006, is considered the Academy Award of the animal conservation world.
TCS, located in the Western Area Peninsula National Park, just outside Freetown, was founded in 1995 purposely to help rescue and rehabilitate orphaned chimpanzees. But it has grown into a diverse conservation organization over the last 25 years, currently holding about 100 chimpanzees.
TCS is also actively engaged in community outreach, wildlife field research, environmental sustainability, conservation education and alternative livelihoods programs.
Bala, originally from Sri Lanka, relocated to Sierra Leone with his family when he was a teenager. He was motivated to establish TCS by the devastating consequences of wildlife poaching, deforestation and exploitation of natural resources in Sierra Leone.
In a statement, TCS said through his work, he has contributed to reversing the country’s deteriorating environmental health and pioneers new projects that substantially contribute to socio-economic development.
Thanks to TCS’s work, the government of Sierra Leone recently designated the Chimpanzee as the country’s national animal and new face of tourism, replacing the diamond.
Bala was recognized in 2017 as Sierra Leone’s Sole Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy Project Distinction awardee. This was in large part due to protecting Freetown’s major water catchments, Guma and Congo Dam which supply water to thousands of people living around the park.
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