Blog

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

The colours of CLP

August 13, 2018
By Reshu Bashyal, Executive Member of Greenhood Nepal With my coffee mug, I stand on the balcony looking at deep coconut forests, and beyond the trees a wonderful beach. My desire! I feel like I am drinking in joy. I am filled with an overwhelming sense of peace and how lucky I am to be here. […]

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Swooping into the Global Flyways Summit

May 15, 2018
In April, BirdLife International convened the Global Summit for the Flyways in Abu Dhabi. The Summit brought together conversation organisations, scientists, policy makers and donors, to discuss the challenges faced by migratory birds. Among the 200 participants, representing 100 organisations and 70 countries, several CLP alumni hid in plain sight – grantees funded as far […]

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A turning point

February 20, 2018
From December 11-14, 2017, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Conservation Leadership Programme ran a four-day course “Building Leadership Capacity for Conservation.” Eighteen participants from Central America gathered for transformational personal and professional growth. Meet some our participants and learn about their course experience. This course was funded by a grant from the American Express […]

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Close encounter of the first kind

December 07, 2017
Zoya Irshad Tyabji, 2017 CLP award winner, shares some of her memories of the training course that she recently attended, including the unforgettable moment when she came face to face with a live shark. Just a few months have passed since we received the news of winning the Future Conservationist Award from the Conservation Leadership […]

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Conservation Agreements: A win-win in the Western Ghats, India  

December 05, 2017
By: Jayant Sarnaik People of the indigenous community ‘Mahadeo Koli’ have lived within the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary (BWLS) for hundreds of years. They have rich traditional knowledge and rely on the land and forests for food and income. As an Important Bird Area in the northern Western Ghats of India, the sanctuary is also home […]

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Leaders rising

September 01, 2017
I had the pleasure of managing the Conservation Leadership Programme’s (CLP) 2017 Conservation Management & Leadership Workshop in Sulawesi, Indonesia from June 28 – July 13. This training course brought together 21 rising conservation leaders who, throughout two weeks, gained not only practical skills and knowledge, but an increase in confidence, motivation, and an awareness […]

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A cross-border exchange to benefit vultures

September 01, 2017
Asian vultures have undergone a catastrophic decline in recent decades, with populations crashing by as much as 99%. In India and Nepal, four of nine vulture species are Critically Endangered, largely as a result of poisoning by a drug commonly used to treat livestock, diclofenac.  The Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) funded projects in both Nepal, […]

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A small tree with stronger roots

June 07, 2017
From March 10-14, 2017 the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) ran a leadership training course for conservationists in Asia. We gathered in the misty, karst peaks of Yangshuo, China. Twenty-two participants from the Wildlife Conservation Society, BirdLife International, Fauna & Flora International, National Geographic Society, and the CLP alumni network contributed valuable experience and left with […]

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An impact in Africa

April 11, 2017
Who wants to read about workshops, training, and the minutiae of how to plan and fund a conservation project? In the eyes of the uninitiated, the interest value of subjects like that is up there with watching grass grow. And yet, they represent the nuts and bolts of conservation, without which there would be far […]

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Building bridges and breaking down barriers

December 16, 2016
Pramod Kumar Yadav, recipient of a 2015 CLP Team Award, recounts how a recent CLP-funded training opportunity in China helped him to broaden his conservation network and improve his technical skills. I am always grateful to the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) for its continuous support and mentorship, which are contributing to the implementation of our […]

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Turning dreams into reality

September 02, 2016
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 […]

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A leap in the right direction

August 31, 2016
Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) Ambassadors play a valuable role in helping first-time CLP Team Award applicants to improve the quality of their proposals and maximise the chances of their project being funded. Before applying for a 2016 Future Conservationist Award, Edna Leticia González Bernal, team leader of the award-winning project, Preventing the disappearance of three […]

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Blood, sweat, frogs and otters

August 18, 2016
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 […]

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Glittering prizes help to shine spotlight on vital conservation work

July 11, 2016
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 […]

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Snow leopard conservation measures win female friends in high places

February 05, 2016
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 […]

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