The Soil Farm Wins Top Prize at Insurance Corporation Conservation Awards 2019

The top prize in The Insurance Corporation Conservation Awards 2019 has been won by Jock Pettitt and Sasha Marsh who run The Soil Farm, a project that manages waste streams produced in Guernsey to regenerate soil health. The top prize of £2000 will be spent on a new food forest in their chicken system, as well as investment into further training.

Angela Salmon, one of the judges this year, noted “The winning projects are all making a fantastic contribution to nature conservation in Guernsey. The projects have involved many members of our community and these projects will be enjoyed by adults and children. The people leading the winning projects showed great knowledge, understanding and enthusiasm for nature conservation and they are also keen to share their knowledge by educating others.”

This year’s runner-up prize of £1000 is awarded to The DolFin Project headed up by Nicola Harris. Their initiative is based on research to find out more important information on dolphins in Bailiwick waters.

The £500 Best School Project went to Little Bears Nature Preschool who continue their work on educating the next generation about conservation in their preschool grounds.

The winners of this year’s Young Conservationists of the Year Award were Aaron Tate and Michaela Scott from St Anne’s School in Alderney, who were rewarded with £250 to go towards their project.

The Peter Walpole People’s Choice Award, which was created in honour of the founder of Insurance Corporation and this competition, also went to Little Bears Nature Preschool. They received the most public votes on the company’s website and receive another £500 towards their project.

Michelle Arundale, HR & PR Executive for Insurance Corporation and Chairman of the Judging panel said that they were overwhelmed with the entries they received this year: “This year we had a difficult task to shortlist entries for judging for the first time in the history of the competition. We had such a fabulous response this year and we were delighted to see such a variety of projects entering. The judging day is always a real pleasure and provides a great insight into finding out all about the fantastic local conservation projects going on around our community and the Bailiwick. It is also a chance to meet the inspirational people behind the projects doing their utmost to en- hance our natural environment in so many different ways. Congratulations to all the entrants and especially our winners.”

Last year the top prize went to The Pollinator Project while the runner up was Guernsey Trees For Life.