The Opportunity: The challenges in Africa facing conservation efforts are significant and growing. Human population growth, infrastructure development, governance and political weaknesses, intensifying land use change, and illegal wildlife use all are putting tremendous pressures on wild landscapes, species and ecosystems. In addition to the impact on natural systems, these pressures increasingly threaten the well-being of the local communities and national economies dependent on those same natural systems. Faced with these challenges, dynamic, creative and effective leadership in conservation is more critical than ever.
These leaders need to be supported to grow as ‘systems leaders’, who can think and act at the level of rapidly changing social, ecological, and political systems. A strong support network made up of their peers can help them grow into the type of conservation leaders that Africa urgently needs today. The African Conservation Leadership Network provides a platform for investing in this new generation of conservation leaders across the region and helping them grow and work together.
Our Partners: Maliasili, The Nature Conservancy, Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association (MMWCA), Lion Guardians, Kenya Wildlife Conservancy Association, Ewaso Lions, Southern Rift Association of Land Owners (SORALO) Game Rangers International, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Community Health Africa Trust (CHAT), Mpingo Conservation & Development Initiative, Taita Taveta Conservancy Association (TTWCA), Kenya Wildlife Trust (KWT), Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organizations (NACSO) (KWCA), Ujamaa Community Resource Team, and Honeyguide Foundation.
The Journey: Design and delivered a custom leadership development program comprised of three one-week in person trainings. After two years of conducting the program designed and delivered a Leadership Forum of leaders (26 individuals from 16 leading African conservation organizations), donors and partner organizations (12 individuals representing nearly as many organizations).
The Result: Development of critical leadership capacity of over 46 conservation professionals from over 24 organizations across Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia and Namibia. Enhanced capabilities of top conservation leaders to have greater impact in their own work and strengthened abilities to lead and manage the efforts of their organizations critical to positively creating conservation impacts.
In addition to the benefits of the leadership development program the Network of leaders has also met with representatives from the donor and philanthropic communities to catalyze new collaborations and innovations on conservation financing. Other benefits from the collaboration range from tackling international and national policy issues, to field-level exchanges between many organizations both within a single country and transboundary between countries sharing in the same ecosystems. The leadership program designed and delivered in 2016 has since gone through several iterations with new participants and expansion of the organizations involved and the geographical coverage across Africa.
