Masondo, Robbie, Doel crowned SAB Enviro Journos of the Year

Merit winners

Merit winners in the broadcast category include Richelle Seton-Rogers of SABC Radio News, Michael Raimondo of Cape Town TV, Joy Summers of Carte Blanche (M-Net) and Sandra Herrington of SABC environmental programme 50/50.

In the print and Internet category, the merit awards went to The Star's Jennifer Bruce, Business Report's Ingi Salgado, The Zululand Observer's Dave Savides and Media24's Elise Tempelhoff.

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Categories winners Masondo and Robbie received R20 000 each and Doel took home R7500, while merit winners pocketed R2500 each.

Dr Anthony Turton, formerly of CSIR, is the SAB Environmentalist of the Year, scooping the 2010 Nick Steele Memorial Award for his brave efforts in gathering information about the risks facing the country's national watersheds for over 10 years. Isaac Tembe was the runner-up in this category, having been recognised for his hard work in helping rural communities to access the benefits of eco-tourism.

Frightening environmental reports

In a year marked by frightening environmental reports, including rhino poaching and acid mine drainage - events that have shocked the nation -journalists went an extra-mile, redefining the traditional presentation of environmental news by relentlessly raising awareness about major issues facing current and future generations.

Commenting on this year's competition, the panel of judges said: "Never before has an environmental story simultaneously appeared across the front pages of consumer, business and industry publications until now.

"Media's traditionally proactive role of raising awareness around the broader issues of biodiversity, water, climate change or sustainable development had to be hastily abandoned this year as many of the impending issues we have been warned about came to pass.

"Environmental stories on rhino poaching, acid mine drainage and illegal mining licences threatening our watersheds dominated the front pages and our broadcast media, hopefully forcing editors to apply more resources to this often-neglected topic and perhaps reconsider its cross-cutting relevance and impact."

"We are in a very serious situation"

Player, a judging panel leader and veteran rhino conservationist, painted a disastrous picture of SA's state of environment, saying: "We are in a very serious situation. I get very distressed whenever I see the images of rhino being savaged.

"However, I am glad the South African Breweries is tracking the state of environment through the media. But as we all know the messenger is often killed. In this case, fortunately, journalists are being rewarded by SAB for their work."

SAB executive director of corporate affairs and transformation Dr Vincent Maphai donated a R1 million cheque to support the development of a series of databases that will result in the capture and loading of DNA of potentially thousands of animals at risk, notably rhinos.

"For us, accepting this challenge and investing in the future is not a luxury, but it is an issue of sustainability," Dr Maphai said.

For more, go to www.sabenvironment.co.za.