Tusk, founded in 1990 to fund African conservation directly, holds its Conservation Awards for rangers and community leaders at Raffles London on Whitehall on Wednesday 11 November 2026.
Tusk, the African conservation charity founded in 1990, holds its Conservation Awards for rangers and community leaders at Raffles London on Whitehall on Wednesday 11 November 2026.
Charles Mayhew founded Tusk when the ivory trade was emptying east Africa of elephants, and almost no British money was reaching the people trying to stop it. It now raises around £14 million a year for conservation across the continent.
Prince William has been its royal patron since 2005 and has travelled repeatedly to see the work. Tusk’s method has always been to fund African organisations directly, in place of running its own programmes.
The awards honour rangers, field biologists and community leaders working in Africa, most of them unknown outside their own countries. Several of them do dangerous work. The ceremony is the one night a year their work is put in front of a London audience.
For someone running a reserve on a shoestring, the award is a career-changing amount of money, and the recognition is often worth more than the cheque.
Tusk publishes the date and the room for the 2026 awards on its own front page, which is unusual for a gala of this rank.