Animal Action Awards 2023 Programme

Welcome to the 23rd annual Animal Action Awards!

I am delighted that you can join us at the BAFTA headquarters tonight to celebrate seven individuals who have made extraordinary contributions towards animal conservation, rescue, or welfare.

This year, we received a record-breaking number of nominations, including 470 submissions for individuals and organizations from 21 different countries. After reviewing each one and selecting finalists, our executive judging panel chose the final award recipients, with winners hailing from the UK, Brazil, Belize, and Australia. This year, we are also honored to introduce a Lifetime Achievement award, recognizing an outstanding individual from Zimbabwe.

Please enjoy the festivities and help us honor these heroes tonight who truly embody IFAW’s mission to help both people and animals thrive together.

Azzedine Downes
President & CEO

18:30 – Drinks and dinner reception

Ray Dolby Room

20:00 – Award ceremony

Princess Anne Theatre

21:30 – Dessert reception

Ray Dolby Room

22:30 – Event concludes

Hamza Yassin

Wildlife photographer, ornithologist, and conservationist Hamza Yassin is known as Ranger Hamza on the CBeebies live-action shows Let's Go for a Walk and Ranger Hamza's Eco Quest. He is a regular presenter on BBC's Countryfile and Animal Park, and he most recently showcased his passion for ornithology in his BBC One documentary Hamza: Strictly Birds of Prey.

With his camera skills, Hamza has filmed for various BBC documentaries narrated by Sir David Attenborough. With his dancing skills, he became a winner of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing in 2022. Hamza holds a Master's degree in Biological Imaging and Photography with Merit and a Bachelor of Science in Zoology with Conservation.

In 2023, he published his first book, Be a Birder: The Joy of Birdwatching and How to Get Started.

Lizzie Daly

Wildlife biologist, explorer, and presenter Lizzie Daly is known for her features in numerous BBC programmes including The One Show, Weatherman Walking, Curious Creatures, and Winterwatch, as well as Solved, Nature's Greatest Mysteries on Animal Planet.

Lizzie has two new series due to air in 2023: Jaguar Journals, in which she uses tagging technology to uncover exciting insights into animal behaviour, and Deep Down Under, which follows her on a road trip across Australia, studying the continent's marine life. Lizzie also has numerous live broadcasting, podcast, and radio credits.

She studied Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter, holds an MSc in Biological Sciences from Bristol University, and is currently working towards her PhD—using tagging to study African elephants. She also serves as an Academic Teaching and Outreach Fellow at Swansea University.

Sacha Dench

Sacha Dench, also known as the ‘human swan’, is a world record breaking biologist, conservationist, Ambassador of the UN’s Convention on Migratory Species, and CEO and founder of Conservation Without Borders. Sacha went on a mission to find out why Bewick’s swans were declining so fast and generated a wave of support for helping save them from people all along their flyway. Despite having a fear of flying, she learned to fly and went on to become the ‘human swan’, migrating over 4,000 miles from arctic Russia to the UK, dangling 1,000s of feet in the air from a piece of fabric with a propellor on her back. She also just completed the Flight of the Osprey expedition, tracking the osprey migration from the UK to Africa. Sacha holds the record for the First Channel Crossing by Paramotor by a woman.

Lizzi Larbalestier

Lizzi Larbalestier has been rescuing marine mammals such as seals and dolphins and even responding to provide help for rarer visitors such as a walrus and a turtle near her home in Cornwall since 2017. She played a key role in efforts to build a seal hospital, during which she was actively involved with the planning, fundraising, project management and construction. She spent the previous seal pup season hosting a temporary pop-up hospital from her home, a season where she, her husband, and other volunteers cared for 139 sick and injured seal pups over a six-month period. Her journey began when she joined British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) as an on-call marine mammal medic, something she now trains others to do as an advanced marine mammal medic and medic instructor.

Nikki Buxton

Nikki Buxton relocated to Belize 20 years ago, where she founded Belize Bird Rescue and has been rescuing parrots and other birds in the country ever since. Each year, approximately 300 birds from about 250 species come to her rehabilitation centre, which houses up to 190 birds at a time. Most are parrots which have been taken from the wild and sold into the illegal pet trade. The parrots that come into Nikki’s care need significant attention to get them ready to be returned to the wild, but with time and the right care, it can be done.

José Palazzo

José Palazzo is one of Brazil’s leading advocates for whales and has spent decades helping to protect them. At just 15 years old, José started campaigning for whales when Japanese fleets were whaling in Brazilian waters in the 1970s. Since then, his passion for protecting marine life has continued to flourish. José has been at the forefront of whale protection, from leading research and conservation projects to rallying Latin American countries against whaling at the International Whaling Commission (IWC). In particular, he has developed projects aimed at protecting Southern right whales and has helped their recovery through a protection programme.

Simon Cowell

Over 40 years ago, Simon left his city career and founded the Wildlife Aid Foundation (WAF), which has become one of the UK’s best-loved wildlife rescue charities. His sacrifice and passion for conservation on the TV show Wildlife SOS secured him a place in the nation’s heart. Simon has devoted his life to saving wild animals that couldn’t help themselves; hundreds of thousands have been given a second chance thanks to his compassion and dedication. Tragically, in 2022, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Simon’s last wish for WAF is and has always been to build a new Wildlife Aid Centre to care for more animals, teach, demonstrate, and inspire the next generation to conserve, to live alongside wildlife.

Davey the Spaniel

Davey is a six-year-old springer spaniel who has been serving with the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service for almost five years. He was adopted from a Dogs Trust rehoming centre in 2018 and was trained to become a search and rescue dog. Davey mainly works in the UK, attending explosions and assisting the police in locating high-risk missing people. But his first life-saving mission was in Turkey, in the wake of the devastating earthquakes that killed thousands, searching for survivors with UK International Search and Rescue (UK ISAR). Alongside his handler and UK ISAR Canine Team Lead, Lindsay Sielski, they arrived within 72 hours of the earthquake. Davey searched around 40 buildings per day, where he located two survivors. Following this mission, in September, he was again deployed, this time to search for survivors in Morocco, where he spent hours searching in the heat. Davey is a rescue dog who has become a rescuer.

Roxy Danckwerts

Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

After having already spent some years rescuing all manner of wild orphans, in 1998 Roxy Danckwerts founded Wild is Life (WIL) in Zimbabwe. She saw the need for a registered and dedicated sanctuary where abandoned, injured, and orphaned animals could be given a second chance at life. From the humble beginnings of a few rescued wild animals in the backyard, WIL has grown from strength to strength, that now rescues, rehabilitates and rewilds many African wild animals, most notably including elephants. Roxy and the team of dedicated staff have rescued over 50 elephants in just 10 years across the country. Elephants are one of the most difficult species to hand raise and rehabilitate, largely due to their unique physiology and deep sentience. They are a keystone species, and the value of rehabilitating elephant impacts all species across the landscape.

Pexels is one of the world’s leading stock photography resources that empowers millions of designers, writers, artists, programmers, and other creators and provides critical, free resources for nonprofits. This year, Pexels partnered with IFAW to launch our second photo contest, encouraging artists all around the world to submit original photos and videos. The contest received over 20K+ submissions from more than 4500 photographers and videographers, all of which IFAW can use royalty-free in perpetuity.

Thank you to our friends at Pexels for displaying some of the winning submissions here today. For even more beautiful wildlife photos and videos, browse the curated collection of the top 100 submissions here.