Inza Koné, a Rolex Awards 2023 Initiative Laureate, is leading the conservation of the Tanoé-Ehy forest in Côte d'Ivoire, protecting its rich biodiversity and some of West Africa's most endangered species through a scientific and community-based approach.

Constantino Aucca Chutas, Beth Koigi, Inza Koné, Liu Shaochuang and Denica Riadini-Flesch: five pioneers of entrepreneurial spirit.

National Geographic explorers Angelo Bernardino and Margaret Owuor embarked on a challenging mission through the coastal forests of the Amazon.

Alison Criscitiello, ice core specialist, mountaineer and explorer, leads the study of ice cores, whose layers preserve 30,000 years of our planet's climate history.

Biologist Pablo García Borboroglu has dedicated more than three decades to better understand the penguins of Argentine Patagonia (and, little by little, those of the rest of the world) in order to save them from the threats that threaten them.

Swiss ornithologist Anita Studer decided that if she wanted to study an endangered bird, she first had to save the forest from deforestation and monoculture. Once the habitat was restored, the blackbird population would grow and she could devote herself to studying them. It's not the short way, but it certainly started a virtuous circle.

Canadian molecular biologist Miranda Wang has created a chemical process to break down the most harmful and polluting plastic waste and transform it into high-performance materials.

Brazilian biologist João Campos-Silva has launched an environmental management project in which community participation is key.

Marine biologist Ginevra Boldrocchi coordinates the monthly research work "in the Caprera Canyon region, an underwater valley whose depths are teeming with cetacean life and other species that urgently need to be protected.

Peruvian biologist Kerstin Forsberg realized that she could not focus on protecting a species if she did not address the needs of the surrounding community.

After nearly 25 years of protection strategies in the Galapagos, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and her team have returned to the archipelago to take the pulse of these ecosystems. The results, in principle positive, could be a new model for conserving our planet's oceans.

South African conservationist Steve Boyes hiked 900 kilometers of the Lungwebungu River. The enormous amount of information gathered could help preserve the tributaries on which millions of people in Africa depend.

Italian speleologist Francesco Sauro goes deep into the icy caverns of the Gorner glacier - the second largest in the Swiss Alps - to find out the cause and speed of the melting of the Earth's ice masses.

The Perpetual Planet Initiative brings together all the ways in which Rolex drives research, conservation and new ideas. All its actions have a single goal: to ensure that our planet is perpetual.

Forester Laury Cullen Jr. has spent three decades reforesting a huge region in Brazil that seemed lost to agriculture and logging. Today, four million trees show that it is possible to live in harmony with the environment.

Marine biologist Brad Norman has found the formula to protect the world's largest fish. The secret lies in citizen participation (and the use of an algorithm made for stargazing).

Vreni Häussermann's mission is to discover the underwater life hidden 500 meters deep in Patagonia. Knowing it, understanding it and valuing it is the strongest argument in favor of its conservation.

Michel André, concerned about the noise pollution that endangers the lives of cetaceans, put bioacoustic science into practice to protect them. Having created a large worldwide listening network, he has expanded his project across land, sea and sky.

These five entrepreneurs were awarded a Rolex Award for Initiative in 2021. Their projects seem very different, but they share the same goal: to solve the problems of the planet we all inhabit.

Andrew McGonigle has developed a technology that can predict volcanic eruptions months in advance. Based on science, passion and ingenuity, it is a fundamentally humanitarian project that will save thousands of lives.