Blog

Read commentary and opinion pieces on conservation and capacity related themes provided by CLP staff and alumni.

Forging a decade of primate conservation efforts in Colombia: A first-hand account

December 18, 2023
Since 2010, the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) has supported two projects focused on the conservation of Critically Endangered brown spider monkeys in Colombia, led by Dr. Gabriela de Luna. Leala Rosen, CLP Program Officer at the Wildlife Conservation Society, recently visited the team at the project site to learn first-hand how CLP support has fostered […]

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Think ahead! How to make small grants last longer

December 06, 2023
By Maaike Manten (BirdLife International) and Stuart Paterson (The Rufford Foundation) With limited time and money available to protect biodiversity, it is imperative that each and every conservation project is as sustainable as possible. However, for small grant projects (typically lasting 1-2 years, with budgets of no more than USD $75,000), this is not easy. […]

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Building Conservation Management and Leadership Capacity: CLP’s Annual Workshop

November 22, 2023
By Leala Rosen, CLP Program Officer, Wildlife Conservation Society In May and June 2023, the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) delivered its annual Conservation Management & Leadership workshop. This brought together our current award-winners – emerging conservation leaders – from all over the world, aiming to develop their skills, boost their networks, and enhance conservation efforts back in […]

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Conservation Without Borders – A Bat Story

December 19, 2022
The Conservation Leadership Programme has been supporting the project: Protecting the horseshoe bats of Romania: Transboundary conservation of horseshoe bats in the Romanian-Serbian Iron Gates led by Szilárd-Lehel Bücs with funding, training and support since 2014. Henry Rees, programme officer speaks about visiting the project, the cross borders impact of their work, and the critical […]

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Human-dolphin coexistence in Nepal: Why we need a traditional perspective

September 13, 2022
This blog has been adapted from the original version published here. By Anu Rai As a member of a team dedicated to conserving Ganges river dolphins in Nepal, I was overjoyed when CLP selected us for one of its Follow-Up Awards last year. The award has allowed us to start reducing the threats faced by […]

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Weaving networks in El Impenetrable, Argentina

September 06, 2022
This blog has been adapted and translated from the original version (in Spanish) published here. By Isis Ibáñez The formal name of our CLP project is “Creating the grassroots to conserve the Santa Fe frog in the South American Great Chaco.” But for the non-academic community, we called it the “Kururu Pytã Project.”  Kururu Pytã […]

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Building leadership capacity for conservation in Southeast Asia

July 20, 2022
By Leala Rosen (CLP Program Officer, Wildlife Conservation Society) In May and June 2022, the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) organised a virtual course to help rising conservation leaders in Southeast Asia learn about effective leadership in conservation practice at the local, regional and national level.  Implementing conservation faces a range of challenges, especially given the […]

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Conservation careers: Empowering young people in conservation

June 21, 2022
This article was originally published on the BirdLife International website. Sherilyn Bos, Capacity Development Officer at BirdLife International, works with the Conservation Leadership Programme to help early-career conservationists overcome threats to nature in places where capacity and access to resources is limited. Here, she tells us more about her role at CLP, her career journey […]

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Inside internships: Five top tips to ensure interns get what they really need

May 27, 2022
In two previous blogs, we’ve shown how internships can help rising conservationists kick start their careers, develop vital skills, boost their networks, and make a lasting impact on both society and biodiversity. These insights have come directly from previous CLP interns who shared their stories and experiences with us in a series of interviews and […]

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Why supporting today’s rising leaders can help protect tomorrow’s world

February 11, 2022
By Bradley Knight In a series of interviews with past CLP interns, I’ve been struck by the way these emerging conservationists have carved out more positive futures for both biodiversity and people through locally-led, innovative approaches. Speaking with past CLP interns, it’s been fascinating to uncover how emerging conservation leaders have used their internships as […]

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Imaginary borders and their very real effects

January 27, 2022
This article was originally published on Roundglass Sustain here. By Imran Samad International borders impact every species. What happens upstream to a river can affect river dolphins and other creatures even hundreds of kilometres downstream – a convincing reason to think of conservation as our shared biological heritage beyond political boundaries.  While travelling through Yanam […]

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Shining a spotlight on species in peril

December 15, 2021
Over the last nine months, several CLP alumni have been featured in The Revelator – an online news and ideas initiative of the Center for Biological Diversity in the US – where they have shared their stories and the plight of the species they are fighting to protect. This year, seven alumni wrote articles featured […]

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Unique insights help uncover the true value of conservation internships

December 14, 2021
Fauna & Flora International (FFI) intern Bradley Knight presents some of the inspiring stories and surprising insights emerging from the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) Internship Scheme.  The CLP Internship Scheme places early-career conservationists within regional host organisations of one of the CLP partners (FFI, BirdLife international, and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to provide them with on-the-job training and skills development. Below […]

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Saving the endangered “barking deer” of Vietnam and Laos

July 28, 2021
This blog was originally published on the Conservation Careers website, which can be found here. Conservation Careers writer, Marie Conroy, interviews CLP alumna Minh Nguyen to uncover why she’s committed her education and career to saving the Critically Endangered “barking deer” of Vietnam and Laos. It may seem strange that an animal only discovered by […]

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The Danube in the Iron Gates: Where bats and people meet!

July 14, 2021
This article was originally published on the lilieci.ro project website, and is also available to read in Romanian, Serbian and Hungarian. If you ever stood on the banks of the River Danube in the Iron Gates region of Romania and looked towards the Serbian shore, it seems to be within arm’s reach. At some points, […]

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