Distinguished Service Award Winners 2026

2026-08-13 16:49:00

SCB Europe is delighted to honour two outstanding members of our conservation community with the 2026 Distinguished Service Award, celebrating their long-standing contributions to conservation science and their exceptional service to SCB Europe.

SCB Europe and the ECCB scientific committee awarded Professor Julia P.G. Jones and Professor Petr Zasadil during ECCB 2026 in Leiden, the Netherlands, with Petr receiving the award in absentia.

Julia Jones is professor of conservation science at Bangor University and is the Prince Bernhard Chair of International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University. Her research aims to help make conservation more effective so that it delivers better outcomes for both people and nature. She does this by developing and advancing methods for evaluating conservation policy and practice. She applies these methods to nature markets (e.g. in avoided deforestation credits or biodiversity credits), reconciling conservation and developments (especially infrastructure projects), and the local costs of conservation. 

She is on the board of WWF-UK and was appointed by the secretary of state for the environment to serve on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, which advises the UK and devolved governments on nature conservation, where she co-chairs the Chief Scientists Group of the UK’s statutory Nature Conservation Bodies.

Petr Zasadil is based at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, where his work examines bird species and communities across forest, rural and urban environments, with particular emphasis on the effects of habitat management, natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and infrastructure development on biodiversity.

Alongside his research, Petr has made major contributions to university education and academic development. He served as Vice-Dean and Vice-Rector for Education at the Czech University of Life Sciences and established the MSc programme in Nature Conservation in both Czech and English and has a long-standing commitment to field-based and international education. Petr has also contributed extensively to the Society for Conservation Biology Europe Region, serving three terms on its Board of Governors. He played a key role in organising and hosting the 2nd (2009) and the 6th (2022) ECCB in Prague, and has contributed to subsequent SCB congresses. His long-standing service has helped establish ECCB as an important European platform connecting conservation science, policy and practice.