Three alumni of the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) have been featured in an episode of the award-winning podcast, WCS Wild Audio, to commemorate CLP’s 40th anniversary this year.
In a WCS Wild Audio episode, CLP alumna Deepshikha Sharma describes her snow leopard conservation work in the Himalaya © Wildlife Wing- Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Nature Conservation Foundation (Camera trap image)
One of our partners, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), runs an award-winning podcast, WCS Wild Audio. In its 100th episode this week, three CLP alumni tell their fascinating stories.
Jorge Parra, Deepshikha Sharma and Camila Kass have all received CLP support during the programme’s 40-year history. In the podcast episode, these three conservationists describe how CLP funding, training and networking opportunities have enabled them to develop their leadership capabilities and generate significant conservation impact.
Champions for snow leopard conservation in India
In 2020, Deepshikha was part of a team at the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) in India that received one of CLP’s Leadership Awards – a continuation award for CLP alumni worth US$50,000 over two years. The objective was to establish the first-ever, comprehensive, landscape-wide system for reducing key threats to snow leopards in the trans-Himalayas, using key results obtained from two previous CLP projects. In this region, lack of awareness and human-wildlife conflicts can lead to persecution and hunting/killing of snow leopards, so the team set out expand outreach and community conservation engagement across 7,000 sq km of key snow leopard habitat in Himachal Pradesh state.
Deepshikha and her team explain how they have established a network of 33 “community champions” consisting of local leaders and youth groups with the capacity to respond to human-wildlife conflicts within communities. Through consultations with these champions, the team developed a procedure allowing local people to claim financial compensation after loss of livestock due to depredation by snow leopards.
Community Champions © Nature Conservation Foundation
The team also focused on changing negative attitudes of people towards wildlife, which required the prevention and mitigation of losses faced by communities due to conflict. During the course of the project, they signed agreements with 15 communities in which they agreed to safeguard wildlife and its habitats and offered them seed funding to enable conservation interventions that compensated for losses incurred due to conflicts. On top of all of this, they also physically reinforced 41 livestock corrals against snow leopard attacks.
In 2024, Deepshikha was one of 11 trailblazing women recognised by the Disney Conservation Fund to carry forward her efforts on the Champions Network. Its another example of how CLP support paves the way forward for future successes in conservation. “I love talking about CLP and how wonderful it is!” says Deepshikha in the Wild Audio episode. “I keep telling people around me: please apply for CLP because it;s such an amazing opportunity.”
Rescuing reptiles in Argentina
CLP alumna Camila Kass and her team received support from CLP in 2023, for a project focused on the conservation of the threatened thorntail mountain lizard in the Famatina Mountains, Argentina. Commenting on this support, Camila said: ““Winning the CLP award was more than just funding—it was the start of an incredible journey. Thanks to CLP, I not only gained the resources and skills to advance my project, but I also became part of a global family of conservationists. And that, to me, is just as important as the work we do in the field.”
CLP alumna Camila Kass leads a CLP-supported project focused on the conservation of the threatened thorntail mountain lizard © Rodrigo Calvo
In the podcast episode, Camila reveals how the local community of Famatina have banded together to stop a mining operation near the town, which is polluting the environment and threatening the local biodiversity, including the thorntail mountain lizard.
Camila is a recent recipient of the John Thorbjarnarson Fellowship for Reptile Research grant, a memorial fellowship fund established by WCS, named in honour of the renowned herpetologist. In the episode, she explains how this will enable her to study the lizard’s behavioural patterns and understand how the species responds to environmental changes.
Camila was was also one of only 10 Argentine researchers to receive a Fulbright scholarship in 2023, which funded her research on the effects of global warming on two lizard species, including the thorntail mountain lizard. And – if that wasn’t enough – she has become a mother to two children along the way!
Conserving birds in the Chicamocha canyon, Colombia
In 2004, 2008, and 2012, CLP supported an emerging Colombian ornithologist, Jorge Parra, and his team working to protect two threatened endemic birds in the Chicamocha canyon: the chestnut-bellied hummingbird and the Niceforo’s (or Chicamocha) wren.
The Critically Endangered Niceforo’s wren © Jorge Parra
Over the course of the three CLP projects, Jorge and his team’s surveys helped to declare the dry forests of the Chicamocha valleys as an important bird area (IBA, BirdLife International). They also established the first natural area preserve in the Chicamocha canyon – the Natural Bird Reserve “Cucarachero del Chicamocha” – thanks to collaborative efforts and generosity of the family Acevedo and Fundacion ProAves.
Within the reserve, Jorge’s team carried out habitat restoration, including the characterisation of suitable habitats and the initiation of a nursery consisting of native plants, and engaged the local communities in the protection of suitable habitats for the target species. Having established their own NGO, Fundación Conserva, the team also set out to create an alliance of different institutions (the Alianza Chicamocha Colombia) aiming to design participatory strategies for the sustainable development in the basin of the river of the Chicamocha canyon.
The Chicamocha canyon, Colombia, home to the threatened Niceforo’s wren and chestnut-bellied hummingbird © Alexandra Delgadillo
Jorge has gone on to lead a hugely successful career in conservation and is now the Deputy Director of Biodiversity at WCS Colombia. “I think CLP gives young conservationists a real opportunity to learn many tools. It connects science with action, and supports people who want to protect the natural world. So I think it’s essential for long-term conservation and for young leaders in conservation to start their careers,” said Jorge in the podcast episode.
The stories featured in the WCS Wild Audio this week represent just three of the 4,400 exceptional leaders that CLP has supported since it was founded 40 years ago. Each of them offer typical examples of how CLP support, including project funding, specialised training, peer-to-peer networking and continuous mentorship, can shape the future of bioiversity conservation.
Listen to the 100th episode of WCS Wild Audio on the WCS website, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, or YouTube Music.
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