Co-founder of EWCL, Jeff Flocken teaching about the importance of networking
Last week, I got to attend and assist with a unique training course called Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders. The course was developed to provide support and inspiration to conservation professionals around the world. There were participants from Ethiopia, Mongolia, Brazil, Europe and the US. In this two year long program, participants come together for one week each year for workshops, training, and mentoring. The rest of the time is spent focusing on assigned conservation projects that they receive at the beginning of the course. Participants put themselves into groups and are assigned to a species(one they don’t already work with) conservation effort. The group then creates, implements and evaluates projects designed to enhance existing wildlife conservation efforts.
One group this year worked with a lion program in Africa. The EWCL team found funding to purchase devices that park staff could carry to enable them to identify and mark individual lion’s locations while they are out on game drives with tourists. They also designed a program to allow tourists to log onto a website to identify the lions they photographed while on safari. The team had posters made for all of the safari lodges to advertise this ID program. This sustainable project benefits both the researchers and lions tremendously. More eyes on the lions improves the ability to monitor the populations, and engaging the tourists fosters an ownership in the battle to save the species.
Bradford works to protect the St. Vincent's parrot.
The support this program offers to its participants is tangible. Many of them are transitioning in their own careers and the network this program provides ensures these eager and skilled conservationists don’t slip though the cracks. Some of the participants were a girl working in Snow Leopard conservation in Mongolia, a man working with St Vincent parrots on St Vincent island, a man working with bats and wind turbines in the US, and a girl lobbying for endangered species in the White house. This is a dream team of conservationists training for the race to save endangered species!
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