Graham Harris

Graham (Guillermo) Harris, "an Argentinean, was nominated for a Leadership Award for his work in defending terrestrial wildlife in southernmost South America.

"Harris is co-founder and president of Fundacion Patagonia Natural, the largest non-profit wildlife conservation organization in southern Argentina, as well as Southern Cone Regional Coordinator for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. His service as administrator of the Patagonian Coastal Zone Management Plan has drawn praise from the United Nations Development Program. Graham Harris

"Some might consider Graham Harris’s work a bit unusual for a conservationist. Oil tankers, for example, often flush their ballast tanks while passing the eastern coast of northern Argentina. The oily residue has coated penguins. Harris gathered scientific information to argue that the lanes should be relocated farther out at sea.

"He also works for the protection of some animals that might be unfamiliar to the rest of the world, including the guanaco (a New World relative of the camel) that is hunted for dogfood, and the ostrichlike rhea. Harris is also a wildlife artist and writer. He wrote A Guide to the Birds and Mammals of Coastal Patagonia, published by Princeton University Press in 1998."