In October 2024, the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) ran its nine-day Conservation Management & Leadership (CML) training workshop in Rwanda, bringing together 18 early-career conservationists from around the world to boost skills, foster new connections, and initiate learning exchanges. Below, we reflect on the legacy of CML 2024: from safeguarding some of the world’s most threatened biodiversity to bolstering the careers of our conservation heroes.
“The CLP training was a truly transformative experience. It equipped me with practical tools for project management, leadership, and community engagement, all of which I’m eager to apply to our conservation efforts. The hands-on workshops and the collaborative environment allowed me to learn from the diverse experiences of other conservationists, which was both inspiring and insightful. I’m now more confident in planning and executing projects and intend to share the skills I’ve gained.” – Post-CML training survey respondent (anonymous)
This year, our training venue was the award-winning campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Kinigi, Rwanda, surrounded by the dramatic landscape of Volcanoes National Park and its rich biodiversity. Here, CLP united 18 emerging conservation leaders from 14 different countries worldwide, including 17 recent CLP Team Award recipients and one CLP Career Placement mentee.
Objectives
CLP brought our awardees and mentee together in this incredible place to immerse them in interactive training sessions on topics not usually covered in formal education, including leadership, project planning, fundraising, communications and behaviour change. By ensuring a participatory, safe space, we empowered the participants to grow their skills and confidence, and learn about themselves and from each other.
We also organised extracurricular social activities to enable our participants to connect both personally and professionally. This included a Cultural Festival to showcase the different cultures of all the countries represented at the workshop, and a field trip to see the beautiful and endangered golden monkeys in Volcanoes National Park.
Expectations
Some participants travelled to Rwanda from as far away as Chile, India and Indonesia, while others had shorter journeys from nearby countries such as Tanzania, Ghana and Madagascar, and our Career Placement mentee joined us from his hometown just half an hour’s drive away.
Wherever they had come from, and however far they had travelled, all our participants had the same expectations: to acquire skills, knowledge, tools and ideas to take home, share with their teams, and apply in their CLP projects to effectively conserve some of the world’s rarest and least understood species including, for example, the guigna, Malabar grey hornbill, intermediate puddle frog, Satara gecko, ornate paradisefish, and Ludlow’s Bhutan glory butterfly.
Sharing their expectations ahead of the workshop, Maite Sanchez, from Uruguay, said: “I hope to improve my communication of ideas, decision-making, and team dynamics, and acquire skills that will contribute to my professional and personal growth” and Hajaniaina Rasoloarison, from Madagascar, added: “This training offers a unique opportunity for networking among the CLP winners to exchange and discuss best conservation practices and approaches.”
Feedback
Based on the anonymous post-training feedback we received from our participants, the CML workshop not only met, but exceeded, their expectations, with all 15 survey respondents rating the workshop as ‘Excellent’.
One participant described it as “A training that all early-career conservationists must do” and another said: “The experience was amazing, I learned so much!” Another said: “I’m more confident about myself as a leader of my team and I feel I can contribute to the development of my team members and the delivery of my projects in the future.”
One participant commented: “Various activities were strategically organised to foster and support learning and this helped in accommodating the different cultural and language diversity present in the training” and another said, “It’s not only the course, but also the experience with other people.”
Indeed, most (93%) survey respondents said they had ‘substantially’ benefited from networking with other participants, with the survey identifying four related key benefits:
- Sharing resources and opportunities with others (100% survey respondents)
- Establishing one or more collaborative relationships (93%)
- Learning from the experiences of others (93%)
- Planning future projects, publications and other conservation actions with others (60%)
Indeed, two participants, Eva Ayaro (Tanzania) and Hajaniaina “Haja” Rasoloarison (Madagascar), are both leading projects on chameleon conservation in Africa and, after meeting at the CML training, started discussing a collaborative learning exchange.
“Haja uses SMART and GIS technologies for data collection, so we are planning a trip for Haja to visit us in Tanzania and train us to use these technologies for our project,” explains Eva. “I’m really excited about this learning exchange because it will improve the efficiency and accuracy of our data collection.”
Fresh Perspectives
As one survey respondent said – “I think there will be a before/after in my career, I’m so motivated” – our participants have now returned home from Rwanda equipped with renewed confidence, motivation and knowledge to embark on their vital conservation work.
Other survey respondents said they had every intention to pass on what they had learned – “I intend to share my knowledge with members of my team and my community” – and improve the way they run their own workshops: “As a result of this training, I plan to implement changes within my institution by conducting more targeted and strategic workshops. I will focus on improving the structure and delivery of these workshops to make them more effective. Additionally, I aim to integrate the skills and knowledge gained from the CLP training into these workshops, ensuring that participants benefit from practical, hands on learning experiences that can enhance their capacity in conservation and project management.” – Anonymous post-training survey respondent
And, importantly, our participants have continued to stay in touch and support each other, sharing updates about their projects and lives, through the strong bonds they forged beneath those mighty Rwandan hills.
Acknowledgements
The Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) is grateful to the Hempel Foundation, the March Conservation Fund, Fondation Segré and Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin – for their support. We are also thankful to our incredible 40-year partnership of three world-renowned conservation organisations: BirdLife International, Fauna & Flora, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Last (but not least), we would like to thank our CML workshop participants for their enthusiasm and dedication to learning as well as the support and encouragement they gave their fellow participants.
