The $200,000 cash award goes to fund graduate fellowships for students in conservation-related fields.
These fellowships are established at the institution of higher learning of the awardee's choice and named in honor of the award recipient and J. Paul Getty.
The 2009 Getty Award will mark the beginning of the second rotation by recognizing outstanding achievements in political conservation leadership.
In 1983 the Wildlife Conservation Prize was presented to the awardees by President Ronald Reagan at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.
According to Russell E. Train, the president of the World Wildlife Fund in the United States at the time, Reagan referred to the Getty Award as the "Nobel Prize for conservation.