Chandra Rasiardhy is a member of the Indonesia team that won a 2016 Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) Follow-up Award for its project, Promoting sustainable fishing in Sumbawa. Translated into English by his colleague Ida Ansharyani, this is Chandra’s personal account of his experience during the two-week international training course in which he recently participated.

It makes me very happy when I look back on the CLP training in Canada – a very beautiful country. Meeting other fantastic people concerned with the environment who had come from all over the world was an extraordinary life journey. This was beyond the wildest dreams and expectations of the son of a fisherman like me, living on the undeveloped Sumbawa Island in Indonesia. Of course, I was worried a lot about joining the training. This was my first overseas trip and my first experience of international training, and my English is not good. My head kept telling me to abandon the whole idea, but deep inside my heart, I wanted to just close my eyes and jump in, and enjoy the experience for what it was. I wanted to have something great to tell my little brothers, to make my late mother proud of me, and to have lots of funny and ridiculous stories to tell my fisher family and friends, but also to prove to myself and to others that everything in life is possible, no matter who you are.

The two weeks of CLP training was the best experience of my life, for sure. I will always recall the warm feeling of socialising with new friends from other countries who were very kind to me. I always looked forward to waking up in the morning, having breakfast and then checking in before starting to study. I really liked the check-in activities: games, yoga and sharing with others what’s in our heart and mind. I would have never thought that such simple activities as those could really energise you despite the long hours of studying. Remembering all of the new and very kind friends that I made there, I miss them so much now. I keep hoping that there will be a chance someday in my life to meet them all again.

This was truly a life-changing experience for me. I learned many new important things from this training about leadership and other skills. The methods of learning were so easy to understand and to apply in real conservation work. I learned about project planning, how gender issues should be incorporated into conservation, how to work with other stakeholders, and much more besides. One thing that I really enjoyed was that we always had games after class sessions, which was such fun.

After the training I felt really energised and motivated to apply all the things I had learned to our ongoing CLP project. I am more confident now to take on a bigger role in our project and in other conservation initiatives. I would like to share many of my experiences and the knowledge gained from this training with my team members and other young people. I have a vision that many young people will be more knowledgeable and aware of the need to protect their marine resources and that they will be more capable of initiating conservation action that will improve the lives of the fisher community as well as conserving the marine environment. I hope that I can keep achieving things for conservation in the future. I hope that, in time, I will also improve my English, so that the language will become much easier for me.

Oh my! I still cannot believe that this CLP training experience was real! I often think that I must have been dreaming and that it was a very nice and long dream from which I never wanted to wake up. This is totally crazy! Thanks so much, CLP!

A Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) networking grant award enabled alumnus Anirban Dutta Gupta and fellow film-maker Priyanka Kuriakose to meet CLP project teams in India and create two short conservation films. This is their account of how that journey unfolded.

As the millionth leech slowly and determinedly climbed up my leg looking for a succulent spot to sink its teeth, I wondered – not for the first time – whether it would have been better to sit in an air-conditioned office making PowerPoint presentations. No sooner had the thought wandered into my mind than it was shot down. Being a film-maker may have its challenges, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

On this particular shoot I was lying flat on my stomach on the side of the Anaimalai Hills in Western Ghats, India, waiting with bated breath to spot one of the rarest frogs in the world. The rain pattered down with ominous determination, the leeches had settled into their favourite spots, the cicadas raised their screeches in a crescendo and the mist wafted up the hill slope covering everything in a blanket of white. My partner in crime Priyanka Kuriakose valiantly tried to keep the camera dry while hopping from leg to leg, a vain attempt to confuse the leeches.

Filming wildlife is never easy and this shoot was no different. But how did we find ourselves here?

Like most beginnings in Mumbai, our journey started on a local suburban train that India’s entire population seemed to be trying to board. Amidst this sea of humanity, we hit on the idea of making series of short films on some very special people who have been working for months – and sometimes years – to help protect unique flora and fauna on the cusp of extinction. At the forefront of this effort has been the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP), supporting these conservationists with funds and training.

As a CLP alumnus myself, I am familiar with the challenges of fieldwork and achieving change for biodiversity. During our 2008 CLP project to protect the lesser florican through community participation, we experienced the power of film. Combined with other audio-visual formats, film works impressively well in imparting complex and often intangible conservation messages in India, a country with high illiteracy rates and a culture engrained in moving media.

Priyanka and I had a vision to film CLP projects to record for posterity the great work done by dedicated individuals and to use these films for environmental education, fundraising and awareness raising. With CLP networking grant support, we had our chance to do just this. We had enough funds to feature two of the 50 Indian projects that have been supported by CLP since 1985. Like a kid in a candy shop, we wanted to film them all! We eventually made a shortlist and contacted the project teams to check on the feasibility of filming with regard to location, season, scope of the project and permissions.

The two projects finally selected were ‘Conservation of otters through community participation in River Moyar, Tamil Nadu’ led by Kannadasan Narsimmarajan, and ‘Conservation of the Critically Endangered toad-skinned frog in India’ led by Arun Kanagavel.

Both Kannadasan and Arun were extremely excited about the film shoots and didn’t hesitate to offer their help. At the time they did not realise that this would entail waking up every day at the crack of dawn, climbing trees and sliding down rocks and being damp and hungry for extended periods of time. We kept quiet about the hardship bits, naturally.

The subjects and their terrain were different, and so were the challenges. The otters are dynamic subjects, full of life and energy but extremely challenging to shoot as they are fast moving and sensitive to human presence. While not as nimble as otters, toad-skinned frogs are very difficult to spot and occur only in a few places.

However, the biggest challenge was the weather. Arun informed us that we needed a few good monsoon showers to see the frogs. Kannadasan worried that too much rain would flood the Moyar River, making it difficult to shoot the otters. A bit of meteorological brainstorming fortified with cups of strong coffee gave us a few best-guess dates for filming. Alongside this, the final script was developed with essential inputs from Arun, Kannadasan and CLP.

Script: check. Equipment: check. Tickets: check. Permissions: check. Weather: umm…

Our first stop was Masengudi near Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, through which the serene Moyar River flows. Kannadasan and his team are plotting the occupancy of otters along this river to better understand and plan the conservation policy. And so we waited for the otters to show up. By the dam, by the river, between the boulders, behind the bush, between leeches and amongst flies…. We waited.

In between the vigils we covered our other shoots – the outreach programme, the interviews, the landscape. But there were no otters in sight and time was running out. As a last hope, we set up by the old watchtower and as the late afternoon heat was having its soporific effect, an excited yell from Kannadasan woke us up. The otters had been sighted! A large group swam into view, dipping in and out of the water for a magical show that lasted the whole afternoon. The hours of frustrated waiting had been worthwhile.

With this experience still in our mind we reluctantly packed up and headed off to film the second project in the mist-covered Anaimalai hills, amidst the tea estates and the ‘shola’ forests. Our rendezvous was with Arun Kanagavel, the young researcher leading the effort to study the myriad amphibians of the Western Ghats and in particular the toad-skinned frog, found only in this part of the hills.

Small and toad-like, the frogs were extremely difficult to find and, once spotted, their small size made them a technically challenging subject to shoot. Reaching the location was another task in itself – Arun and Sethu Parvathy made the steep climb look maddeningly easy while we huffed and puffed one step at a time. Every rest was an invitation for a leech invasion.

As with the otters, it was only on the last day that we managed to find the toad-skinned frog. With the footage wrapped up we headed back to Mumbai to edit and create short films. Once completed, the final versions were shared online and on social media. Soon after we finished the otter film it was shown by Kannadasan and his team at the 13^th International Otter Congress in Singapore.

For us, these films were an opportunity to put our theories into action – create structured and designed communication about conservation projects for impactful dissemination. We made wonderful friends, experienced incredible landscapes and came face to face with some of the most enigmatic species on the planet.

We hope you enjoy our films: Waterdogs of Moyar and The Frog Chronicles.

We cannot wait to pack for the next trip and another set of films – leeches and all!

You’ve all heard the joke about buses; you wait ages for one to arrive, then several turn up at once. For the vast majority of conservationists, however, awards tend to be more like telephone engineers; you wait years for one to arrive…and they never turn up at all. In this context, it is gratifying to witness so many people with Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) connections bucking the trend, particularly in the first half of 2016.

In recent years, CLP alumni have regularly picked up awards. Julie Hanta Razafimanahaka, Director of Madagasikara Voakajy, first joined this Malagasy NGO as a volunteer researcher on a CLP-funded bat conservation project. She quickly established herself as one of Madagascar’s most promising conservationists, a reputation cemented in her current role. Julie was the recipient of a 2014 Marsh Award, which recognises inspiring individuals who are having a profound impact in their chosen conservation sphere, and won the 2015 Young Women in Conservation Biology Award.

Patricia Davis, another 2014 Marsh Award winner, co-founded ‘Community Centred Conservation’ (known as C3), whose ‘Dugongs for Life’ project received a coveted Conservation Leadership Award worth US$50,000.

President and co-founder of Peruvian NGO ProDelphinus and recipient of three successive CLP awards, Joanna Alfaro Shigueto (2015 Marsh Award for Marine Conservation Leadership) has led the way in the development of sustainable small-scale fisheries and protection of marine wildlife throughout the south-eastern Pacific Ocean.

Mirza Kusrini, another 2015 Marsh Award winner, has gradually metamorphosed into one of the leading authorities on amphibians in Indonesia, greatly increasing awareness in her home country about the importance of frogs and their role in the ecosystem.

Golden year

This year has seen CLP alumni positively showered with glittering prizes.

Yufang Gao, a dynamic young conservationist whose meteoric rise to prominence began with a CLP internship at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 2008, is currently at the helm of an NGO in his native China, a country sorely in need of environmental enthusiasts. The year of the monkey is rapidly evolving into the year of the award ceremony for Gao, who has picked up a 2016 Marsh Award and National Geographic Society’s coveted Emerging Explorer award in quick succession.

Uruguay’s Alejandro Fallabrino, winner of the 2016 Marsh Award for Marine Conservation Leadership, is a more seasoned campaigner with three successive CLP awards to his name. He has been making waves in marine conservation for nearly 30 years, and founded local NGO Karumbé, which played a key role in establishing his country’s first Marine Protected Area.

Three CLP alumni – Gilbert Adum, Alex Rukhaia and Makala Jasper – featured among the winners of this year’s Whitley Fund for Nature Awards, affectionately known as the ‘Green Oscars’.

Co-founder of SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana, Gilbert Adum was born into a hunting community, but broke the mould by dedicating himself to the conservation of endangered amphibians like the giant squeaker frog.

Alex Rukhaia, the first Georgian ever nominated for a Whitley Award, is working with local communities in his home country to change attitudes to migrating raptors that are traditionally shot or captured for falconry.

Co-founder and CEO of the Mpingo Conservation & Development initiative, Makala Jasper is at the forefront of efforts to conserve Tanzania’s forest and woodland habitats. Makala barely had time to polish his 2016 Whitley Award before he found himself flying to Washington DC, where he collected the National Geographic Society/Buffett Award for Leadership in African Conservation. Appropriately enough, the size of the prize matched the enormous prestige attached to it, presenting Makala with a novel conservation challenge – how to squeeze the award into his carry-on baggage on the return flight.

Geographically widespread and taxonomically varied, the projects that gave rise to all these awards underline CLP’s global reach and broad species remit – turtles in South America, snow leopards in China, raptors in Georgia, East African forests and West African amphibians are among the many beneficiaries of the individual dedication and collective commitment that these awards serve to highlight.

Conservation is the real winner

Ultimately, it is this collective commitment that makes the difference. Makala and Gao would be the first to acknowledge the countless unsung conservation heroes who go above and beyond the call of duty without ever receiving the recognition their efforts deserve. That includes the local communities in whose hands the long-term fate of all these species and habitats ultimately lies.

But these people need to be inspired in the first place, and it is individuals like Gao and Makala who provide the spark to ignite others’ enthusiasm and galvanise them into collective action. That is what makes them special.

Conservationists do not need awards to tell them that they are doing a valuable job, and you would struggle to find anyone working in this field whose primary motivation was to garner plaudits. But these public tokens of esteem don’t just recognise the recipients. By putting conservationists and their projects in the global spotlight, they raise local, national and international awareness about the vital importance of doing this work in the first place.

They also, it is worth noting, enhance reputations and open doors to new sources of funding, which in turn enables conservationists like Makala and Gao to do more of what they do best. In that sense, these awards are worth their weight in gold.

Radhika Timbadia reveals how a second Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) award is helping to support her team’s innovative wildlife protection work in the Himalayas.

It was three years ago, after a long, tiring journey up the road from Leh to Kaza, that I first visited Spiti, in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Having heard countless stories about its pristine beauty, I was excited to explore its fauna and high mountains. We were mesmerised at 4,590m by Kunzum-La, the pass that connects Kullu and Lahaul valleys with Spiti valley. After travelling for more than 24 hours, I received a phone call with the news of my niece’s birth, which made this trip unforgettable for me. Ever since my first visit I have fallen in love with the people who are always sunny, positive and cheerful despite the remoteness and biting cold.

Nature Conservation Foundation, with support from the Snow Leopard Trust, has been working exceptionally hard to conserve and protect snow leopards and their prey species on the Indian side of the Trans-Himalayan landscape for more than 15 years. A CLP Future Conservationist Award in 2011 helped our team identify some of the main reasons for negative attitudes towards snow leopards and wolves in the region. Our CLP Conservation Follow-Up Award in 2015 is now allowing our team to test multi-pronged approaches that aim to reduce the impact of conflict with snow leopards, and improve attitudes of local pastoralists.

Snow Leopard Enterprises, working under the local name of Shen, is one such conservation programme that has generated interest among the local women, a key focus group that typically gets left out of conservation dialogues. Shen, meaning snow leopard in the local Spitian dialect, is an enterprise to increase income and safeguard wildlife in the region. The enterprise involves 50 women from two villages, Kibber and Chichim, in the Spiti valley. The kind and talented Dr Mala Srikanth, an experienced knitter, braved the frigid November temperature (-4 to -14 degrees Celsius) to provide them with handicraft training.

Conducted over a two-week period, the training focused on crochet and knitting skills enabling the women to make well finished contemporary products like hand-crocheted red fox bookmarks, sheep hot pot holders, jute baskets and knitted cowls, socks and many other items. This was followed by a further seven days of training, held in Bangalore in early January, which focused on block printing and embroidery. Thanks to support from CLP these training sessions were provided at no cost to the women. The trainers have now gone back to their respective villages to teach other women.

The products have been sold in exhibitions in the cities of Bangalore and Delhi in the last year. They sell for up to Rs. 800 (approximately US$12). In the coming year we hope to sell online and in shops, in addition to targeted exhibitions. We expect the women to make at least US$2,000 in total from conservation-friendly sales in 2016, and we expect to start working with one more village that has shown interest in the past.

The sale proceeds from these products will help diversify their income and provide an incentive for them to participate in the conservation of species like the snow leopard, wolf, fox, bharal and ibex. To strengthen the conservation linkage we have had several conversations with the women culminating in an agreement to have a strict no poaching rule in both villages.

Hunting is already illegal, but it happens occasionally, usually because people coming from outside these villages are unaware of the law. The women now take the responsibility to make them aware, and to report any incidences of poaching to the relevant authorities. The women are paid for the products they make irrespective of poaching activity, but they receive a 20% conservation bonus at the end of the year if there has been no poaching or if the right preventative steps have been taken. It is similar to the system used successfully in Mongolia for the past 10 years.

The warm, loving, funny and vibrant women are making this enterprise come together. We participated in our first big exhibition, Dastkar, over Christmas in New Delhi. It was an enlightening experience and we were touched by the support given to us. Together we have learned and achieved many things, but we still have a long way to go. Our aim is simple: to protect and ensure a bright future for the wildlife and local communities of the Trans-Himalayan landscape.