Ecologist Wouter Helmer (48) has won the Edgar Doncker prize for nature. He will spend most of the €150,000 prize money on the Missing Lynx project which works to preserve a network of habitats for endangered plants and animals.

Symbol for the project is the Eurasian lynx, which used to be found all over western Europe and is now on the return.
The remaining €25,000 will be given to publications on nature management in Helmer’s home region to the east of Nijmegen.
Helmer has been instrumental in the development of thousands of hectares of new nature areas in the Netherlands over the last 20 years.
The Edgar Doncker Fund was set up in 1997 and makes awards for outstanding services to nature conservation, Dutch culture and children’s medicine on an annually rotating basis. Half of the annual prize money must go to a good cause in the relevant field.