America's First Wilderness by Kathleen Orlinsky

Congratulations to Kathleen Orlinsky for winning the Sustainability Prize this year. This initiative rewarding photographers passionate about communicating the planet’s biggest challenges  is part of Creators for the Planet, a global year-round engagement programme set up by Creo and developed in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and Sony Pictures.

Speaking about her win, Kathleen says: ‘I am thrilled and honoured to be awarded, and especially excited to be able to raise awareness about pressing environmental and conservation issues right now in the throes of the climate crisis.’

The Gila Wilderness spans 2,250 square kilometres of rugged country in southern New Mexico, USA. In 1924, the Forest Service designated it the world’s first wilderness area. This milestone of American conservation largely came about thanks to a young forester called Aldo Leopold, who saw the wilderness as a place to be protected both for – and from – humans. However, the Gila has always been inhabited by people, from Mogollon cliff dwellers thousands of years ago to the more recent Chiricahua Apache, who lived in the region for centuries before they were forced onto reservations.