Executive Manager's Message

Happy Birthday to the Conservation Leadership Programme! This year marks 25 years of the CLP and I am amazed by what we have been able to accomplish over that time.

Since 1985, a total of 480 awards have been granted, including Conservation Awards (405), Research Fellowship Program Grants (35); Internships (32); Scholarships (4) and Kate Stokes Memorial Awards (4). This represents support to more than 2,500 individuals in 88 countries. We have also trained more than 450 individuals since the training component was added in 1997.

Even more exciting is what has been accomplished by those who have received awards and support from the CLP. Nearly 100 new species have been discovered or rediscovered, half of which have been confirmed; nearly 50 new protected areas have been created and over 15 NGOs have been established.

To celebrate 25 years of conservation and capacity building successes, we held an event on the 25th March in Cambridge, England, where the programme was first established. The event was hosted by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative at the Judge Business School and we premiered a new CLP video, which you will be able to watch on our website very soon!

At the event we heard from Ros Aveling (Deputy CEO, Fauna & Flora International) and Marco Lambertini (CEO, Birdlife International) and had presentations from CLP alumni who were in town for the Student Conference on Conservation Science. It was a great opportunity to catch up with long-time CLP supporters and make new connections. Please visit the new CLP Facebook page (www.facebook.com/CLPawards ) where you can find pictures from the event, and much more!

We are already looking ahead to the next 25 years and our continued collaboration with each of you. I hope you will join us at the International Congress for Conservation Biology in Alberta, Canada in July or the Student Conference on Conservation Science in New York in November as we continue to mark this momentous year.

We are now in the final stages of selecting 2010 Conservation Award winners and are excited by the number of high-quality applications that we have received. Winning projects will be announced very soon and we look forward to meeting team members at the 2010 International Winner’s Training in Alberta, Canada in June.

Enjoy this quarter’s newsletter and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or comments.

Robyn Dalzen, Executive Manager

Important Funding Success for the Gangetic Dolphin Project

Why Publishing Research Is An Important Exercise For All Conservationists

Deadline April 30th - Masters in Conservation Leadership, University of Cambridge

Alumni Travel Grants. Deadline: May 5, 2010

9 – 15 April 2010 4th International UNESCO Conference on Geoparks, Kedah, Malaysia

27 - 29 April 2010 30th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium, Goa, India

2 – 3 June 2010 CBD – IUCN: International conference on safeguarding biodiversity in Africa, Libreville, Gabon

16-18 June, 2010 The Student Conference on Conservation Science, Bangalore, India

3 – 7 July 2010 International Congress for Conservation Biology, Edmonton, Canada

19 - 23 July 2010 International Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Bali, Indonesia

12 - 18 September 2010 International Primatological Society’s XXIII Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark

7-14 November 2010 5th International Galliformes Symposium, Chiang Mai, Thailand

News From the Field

Team Awards are granted to teams of three or more individuals who are undertaking high-priority conservation projects. The awards are arranged in a tiered system to allow for progression and include the Future Conservationist Award, Conservation Follow-up Award and Conservation Leadership Award.

AFRICA
Initiative for Conserving the The Itombwe Massif, Eastern DR Congo (2006)
This DR Congo team, working in the Itombwe Massif, who’s first research focus was the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei), has expanded their scope of research, even discovering new species of amphibians and reptiles. The Itombwe Massif is located in Eastern DR Congo and presently, there is the need to determine its biodiversity value.

Dugong without Borders: Building Capacity for Indian Ocean Sirenian Conservation, Comoros (2009)
Dugongs without Borders (DWB) team member Patricia Davis was invited in March by the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species Dugong Secretariat to contribute to a meeting aimed at standardizing international methods for rapid low cost assessments of dugong populations. The meeting was held in Singapore over two days and was an opportunity to meet and interact with sirenian experts from Australia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Thailand, Malaysia and the USA.

Read more about projects in Africa...

ASIA/PACIFIC
Community-driven Conservation of Cambodian Chelonians (2004, 2005, 2007)
The Cambodian Chelonian team has had increasing success over the last several years to protect Asian giant softshell turtle nests and hatchlings which, along with other turtles, are threatened by hunting.

Conservation Initiatives for Greater Adjutant Stork in Assam, India (2009)
On 2nd February 2010 Aaranyak, in collaboration with the CLP, and Sarala Birla Gyan Jyoti School celebrated World Wetlands Day 2010 in style! Dadara village was selected for this year’s event to highlight the needs for the protection of wetlands to conserve the globally endangered Greater Adjutant stork. In the world today about 600 individuals are left in Assam and more than 50 percent of its global population can be found in and around Guwhati City.

Read more about projects in Asia/Pacific...

EURASIA
Community-based Conservation of Lake Kuyucuk, Kars, Turkey (2008)
The KuzeyDoga team is very pleased to announce that on November 20, 2009, the Ramsar International Secretariat (RIS) officially declared Lake Kuyucuk Wildlife Reserve as Turkey’s 13th and eastern Anatolia’s first RAMSAR site. This Wildlife Reserve is one of the most important wetlands of Kars province in northeastern Turkey.

Conservation of Rare Plants of Lake Baikal, Russia: Monitoring of Plants and Education of Local Community (2008)
The team is working in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lake Baikal, with the aim to conserve rare and endemic plants. In January-February 2010 an interpretive specialist of US Forest Service, Joy Barney, was hosted in Ulan-Ude by the team’s NGO, EcoLeague. Under Joy’s leadership the team organized a number of seminars for university students and schoolteachers.

Read more about projects in Eurasia...

LATIN AMERICA

PROJECT CHICAMOCHA II: Saving Threatened Dry Forest Biodiversity, Colombia (2004, 2008)
The purchase by ProAves of over 3,200 acres of vital remaining dry forest habitat - some of the highest quality remaining forest of this type in the entire region - will result in the creation of a new reserve to protect the critically endangered Niceforo’s Wren. It constitutes the first protected area within the Chicamocha Valley for these and many endemic flora and fauna species.

Advancing Seabird Conservation in Peru’s Artisanal Fishery through Education and Research (2007)
The Pro Delphinus team has worked hard the last year to continue the seabird conservation program in Peruvian artisanal fisheries. They have attended various conferences and meetings with the aim of amplifying their work and developing key collaborations.

Evaluation of Threatened Amphibians in Colombian Key Sites (2008)
There is limited awareness about amphibians and the threats that they face in Colombian communities. To address this, the team directed awareness activities and environmental education in communities that fall within Alliance for Zero Extinction sites. Talks, workshops, and educational activities were carried out in 12 schools with a total of 360 children.

Reducing Threats to the Endemic Cochabamba Mountain Finch, Bolivia (2009)
The team has been working hard on many fronts to protect the Cochabamba Mountain Finch (Poospiza garleppi) which has been listed as endangered by the IUCN red-list and is endemic to small area in Bolivia.

Read more about projects in Latin America...

CLP Alumni: Where Are They Now?

Careers, Community Development and Catalysing Regional Conservation Efforts in Southern Madagascar: Impacts of Conservation Leadership Programme Support Ten Years Later
In 1999 the Conservation Leadership Programme awarded a young team from southern Madagascar and the UK with funding to undertake research in the spiny forest of southern Madagascar. The members of ‘Project Ifotaka’, as it was known then, have gone a long way and can now be found in at least four continents managing protected areas, lecturing in University and for some still involved in conservation initiatives in the spiny forest.

The CLP (or the BP Conservation Programme, as we knew it then), awarded all three levels of funding to student and volunteer teams working in the Ifotaka area in 1999, 2001 and 2003. What started ten years ago as a research project looking at the status of threatened lemurs and their habitat of the spiny forest, evolved into a much broader ranging conservation initiative. To read more about the Madagascar team click here.

Final Reports Received

These recently concluded projects have had some exciting results. To download a pdf copy of a project report, click on the project title below to visit the relevant project page on the CLP website.

Project Websites

Check out project websites for updated news and images from award winning teams in the field: