Founders Award for Civic Leadership

The Founders Award for Civic Leadership acknowledges groups and individuals of national stature for his or her contributions to the stewardship of communities.

Thomas E. Lovejoy is being honored for bringing climate change and the vulnerability of the world’s tropical rainforests to national attention. Lovejoy, an accomplished conservation biologist, is often credited with coining the term “biological diversity.”

Thomas E. Lovejoy traveled to Brazil in 1965 as a graduate student to conduct one of the first studies of the effects of habitat fragmentation in the Amazon. This led to what is now the largest long-term experiment in the history of landscape ecology, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, which has produced invaluable data on the severe risks posed by habitat destruction and climate change.

In 1973, Lovejoy was named the director of the conservation program of the World Wildlife Fund. He served until 1987 at which time he became the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Affairs for the Smithsonian Institute and a protégé of Dillon Ripley. Lovejoy has lent his expertise as an environmental advisor to a number of influential organizations including the Inter-American Development Bank.

Lovejoy has played a fundamental role in bringing the vulnerability of the Amazon rainforest and the dangers of climate change to international attention, most notably through his work with David Attenborough on the PBS series Nature. For years he was the lone voice measuring the impact of climate change and habitat destruction on biodiversity. Today, Lovejoy is celebrated for his pioneering work in this emerging field and his noble devotion to the protection of the world’s most vulnerable natural habitats.