Dec 2018

Astonishing stories from the field

Executive Manager's Message

One of the most enjoyable things about working on the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) is getting to meet some truly remarkable people who are conducting conservation projects in far-flung corners of the world. Reading about their CLP-funded work gives an insight into the challenging environment in which they are operating and the results that they are striving to achieve in the conservation of threatened species.

Within this newsletter CLP alumni describe some extraordinary encounters with nature found high up in the forest canopies and down in the ocean depths. Over recent months CLP alumni have achieved some astonishing results, for example: recording the first camera trap images of woolly spider monkeys in Brazil and attaching the first satellite tag to a thresher shark in Indonesian waters.

Looking forward to 2019, there are already a couple of important dates in the Conservation Calendar where we expect CLP alumni to congregate and network with the global conservation community. These include the International Congress for Conservation Biology in Malaysia and the Student Conference on Conservation Science in Cambridge, UK. Do let us know if you’re planning to be at either event.

If you use social media, keep track of the latest CLP news and alumni achievements by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Stuart Paterson
Executive Manager

Where Are They Now?

Spending time in the Himalaya gives Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi tremendous joy. Read about his career to date and the ways he is working to protect his snow leopard companions and the livelihoods of communities that share this stunning landscape.

Survey

The IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Capacity Development Group together with Fauna & Flora International are interested in gathering and sharing ways to inspire people to take small, manageable actions to improve their organisations.

You can help by completing this one question survey: https://bit.ly/2Trfuhr

IN THIS ISSUE

•	Executive Manager's Message
•	Where Are They Now?
•	Survey
•	Alumni Accomplishments
•	Upcoming Events
•	Conservation in Action
•	Final Reports
•	Alumni Publications
•	Project Websites

Alumni Accomplishments

Jyoti Das is the new ZSL EDGE Project Manager, supporting fellows across Asia.

Charles Emogor won a Commonwealth Scholarship which he is currently using to pursue an M.Sc. in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford.

Ana Belén Yanez received a scholarship and is studying her master’s via an Erasmus+ programme: IMBRSea.

Aristo Mendis joined Wildlife Conservation Society - India as a Research Associate for the combating wildlife trafficking project.

Vu Long established, and is the director of, a new not-for-profit organisation called the Center for Biodiversity Conservation and Endangered Species.

Read more accomplishments

Upcoming Events

26-28 March 2019: Student Conference on Conservation Science - Cambridge

21-25 July 2019: International Congress for Conservation Biology - Malaysia

30 July - 1 Aug 2019: Capacity for Conservation - London

Conservation in Action


Where do the threshers go?		Canopy cameras in Brazil


Sanctuary for a frog in Ghana		Insights into mysterious deep reefs

Final Reports

Watershed assessment for threatened fish in Halgurd-Sakran Park, Iraq/Kurdistan (2016)

Long-term conservation planning for endemic plant species in Egypt (2017)

Conservation of velvet scoter on Tabatskuri Lake in Georgia (2017)

Read final report summaries

Alumni Publications

Calle-Rendón, B. R., Moreno, F., and Hilário, R. R. (2018) Vulnerability of mammals to land-use changes in Colombia’s postconflict era. Nature Conservation, 29: 79-92. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.29.28943.

Colombia, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, is entering a peaceful period after more than fifty years of armed conflict. Due to land use changes resulting from this new situation, negative effects on biodiversity, including mammals are expected. We think that mammal populations will be more sensitive in municipalities where activities related to post-conflict will be carried out. In that order, we aim to: 1) identify which mammal species would be more sensitive and 2) identify the critical regions where there is higher richness of sensitive mammals...

Goswami, R., Thorat, O., Aditya, V., and Karimbumkara, S. (2018) A preliminary checklist of butterflies from the northern Eastern Ghats with notes on new and significant species records including three new reports for peninsular India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 10(13): 12769-12791. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3730.10.13.12769-12791

The northern Eastern Ghats is an area with significant biodiversity value but remains poorly explored except for a few charismatic taxa such as birds, mammals and reptiles. Very few studies have looked at the invertebrate diversity of these hill ranges, particularly butterflies. We present the first peer-reviewed checklist of butterflies from the northern Eastern Ghats based on a rapid and intensive survey carried out at five sites over 16 days across the buffer area of Papikonda National Park and Araku Valley in 2015 and 2016. We report a total of 102 species of butterflies from six lepidopteran families...

Tyabji, Z., Jabado, R., and Sutaria, D. (2018) New records of sharks (Elasmobranchii) from the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago in India with notes on current checklists. Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e28593. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e28593

The diversity of sharks occurring off the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago in India has received increased attention in recent years. Yet, available checklists are out of date, often with inaccurate information and a number of commercially important species have not been documented through research and fish landing surveys. Here we report on shark species examined during fish landing surveys conducted from January 2017 to April 2018...

See all alumni publications

Project Websites

CLP Partners