Harrison Ford became the first recipient of the E.O. Wilson Legacy Award for Transformative Conservation Leadership this past Wednesday, honouring his decades-long fight for conservation and protection of the environment, a battle that has seen the tide turn – and not for the better – in recent years.
The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation announced Thursday that Harrison Ford was the recipient of the first E.O. Wilson Legacy Award for Transformative Conservation Leadership. Ford received the award during the foundation’s “Half-Earth Day” celebration at the Field Museum in Chicago on Wednesday.
According to the foundation, the new award “celebrates the extraordinary contributions of individuals who embody E.O. Wilson’s inspirational legacy in conservation science, passion for biodiversity, and action on behalf of all species.”
The foundation says that Ford had been a friend of Wilson since the early 1990s, and that they had worked together “to champion the conservation of global biodiversity.” According to the foundation, Wilson named a new ant species after Ford in 2002 and in 2010 the two teamed up to create a science writing award.