Noah Beshto Was Named a 2026 Eco-Hero, Now He Plans to Follow a Stork to Africa
Written by Ethan M. Stone
At 10 years old, Noah Beshto has already filmed wildlife stories across eleven countries. This year, that work earned the young documentarian and wildlife advocate an Honorable Mention in Action For Nature’s 2026 International Young Eco-Hero Awards.
The recognition came for “Noah’s Diary,” a project that started much more quietly. Beshto, born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and now living in Baku, Azerbaijan, began keeping a personal nature journal in 2023 after years of closely observing injured birds and other animals around him. By May 2025, the diary had become a public documentary series, taking him into the field with scientists and conservationists.
His videos have since drawn more than 670,000 views on YouTube. The award puts Beshto among 16 young people selected from 476 applicants across 50 countries in 2026, but the numbers only explain part of why Action For Nature singled him out.
“Noah is showing the world that empathy might be the most powerful conservation tool we have,” said Beryl Kay, president of Action For Nature. “He’s not lecturing kids about nature. He’s inviting them to care about it, one story at a time.”
Action For Nature’s International Young Eco-Hero Award recognizes environmental work by young people between 8 and 16. Beshto received his 2026 honorable mention in the biodiversity and environmental-education categories.
Noah’s Diary Goes Into the Field
Much of “Noah’s Diary” is built around going somewhere, finding the people already studying a species or habitat, and asking questions while the work is happening.That has taken him through Germany, Austria and other parts of Europe, as well as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. Along the way, he has interviewed ornithologists and wildlife photographers, with the videos translating subjects that can become technical fairly quickly into stories intended for a much broader audience.
The filming is increasingly tied to hands-on conservation work. In Azerbaijan, Beshto has worked alongside ornithologist Dr. Elchin Sultanov on eight nesting boxes equipped with cameras to study barn owls and lesser kestrels. He is also involved in “What the Wind Brings,” a project examining how wind moves plastic waste into semi-desert environments.
Elsewhere, “Noah’s Diary” has covered wildlife rescue and the treatment of urban animals. Beshto has supported the Wild Animals Rescue Center in Ukraine, including raising awareness around Khan, a rescued lion. His work involving Berlin’s urban swans also drew support from Greenpeace Berlin.
The common thread is about getting close enough to the people doing the work that viewers can see what conservation looks like beyond the slogan.
“I don’t want people to feel guilty. I want them to feel connected, really connected, to nature,” Beshto said when his Eco-Hero recognition was announced. “Because when you truly understand something and feel it in your heart, protecting it just becomes natural.”
Next Comes One Black Stork
In June, scientists fitted a rare black stork with a GPS tracker near Chernobyl. As the bird began its migration south, the tracker offered a route that Beshto and Georgian ornithologist Nika Paposhvili plan to follow by motorhome.The project, called “Follow the Bird,” is intended to document what migrating birds encounter between breeding and wintering grounds. Rather than filming from one reserve, Beshto will work along the route itself, looking at disappearing wetlands, dangerous infrastructure, and other pressures birds face while crossing borders.
The first stage is planned for October through Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Beshto is also expected to speak at a bird-migration conference in Istanbul and interview the head of Doğa Derneği, BirdLife International’s partner in Turkey. A later stage is expected to continue through Jordan and Egypt, depending on where the stork goes.
Paposhvili brings serious field experience to the trip. His research focuses on bird conservation in Georgia, including tracking threatened migratory species to identify the places they depend on outside their breeding grounds.
For Beshto, that makes the journey a natural extension of how “Noah’s Diary” has developed. The camera follows the science instead of asking the science to fit neatly into an episode.
The Award Is Not the Finish Line
Noah chose to send recent Eco-Hero prize money back into conservation work, donating it to an organization connected with Paposhvili rather than treating the award as the end of the project.Beshto’s films have begun making their way into classrooms too, where screenings have been paired with activities such as building nesting boxes. It is another version of the same idea that has guided the project from the beginning: people tend to care more once an animal or habitat stops feeling abstract.
“When I was little, it hurt me to see animals treated like objects for entertainment, and I realized people can’t love or protect what they don’t understand,” Beshto has said.
This October, “Noah’s Diary” gets a moving subject. Somewhere along the route south, a GPS signal from one black stork will determine where the next part of the story begins.
