Looking back at Ewaso Lions' remarkable Community-Led Conservation Conversations Workshop.
To gather global insights on community-led conservation, 2023 Whitley Gold Award winner Shivani Bhalla and Ewaso Lions hosted 18 dedicated and passionate conservationists from around the world in the heart of their field site at Westgate Conservancy, Samburu.
Participants included Whitley Gold Award winners Charu Mishra and Rodrigo Medellin, Whitley Award winners Micaela Camino and Rosamira Guillen and members of their teams, and WFN’s Acting Director, Victoria Thompson and Grants and Networks Officer, Lisa Wheeler joined for the week too.
The workshop forms an integral part of Shivani and team’s two-year project to develop an open-source framework that supports conservationists in implementing community-led conservation strategies. They’re working to ensure conservation decision-making takes place at the local level and focuses on encouraging community agency. By prioritising community leadership in conservation decision processes, the ultimate goal is to maximise the impact and long-term sustainability of conservation initiatives.
This project builds upon the PARTNERS Principles, which were developed by Charu Mishra and the Snow Leopard Trust, and shared with WFN alumni and other conservationists during a training workshop held in Kyrgyzstan in December 2022. It also leverages the available resources provided by the Ethical Conservation Alliance, a collaborative platform for knowledge exchange and cooperation within the realm of ethical nature and community-based conservation.
A PIVOTAL WORKSHOP
Throughout the week, the group shared collective insights within their own context and solutions to strengthen the pivotal roles that communities play in protecting their environment.
In one of the first sessions, participants discussed what the words “local”, “community” and “community-led” meant to them and in their project context. Working on a definition of community-led conservation raised interesting discussions based on case studies from the participants.
The group then discussed and prioritised some of the key barriers for communities to engage with and lead their own conservation initiatives. Barriers ranged from the localised, to wider political and social issues, to climate change.
Once barriers were identified, discussion moved onto potential solutions and the conditions needed to achieve community-led conservation. Long term commitment and strengthening capacity within communities were just a few of the solutions raised.
Ewaso Lions’ Mama Simba programme lead, Munteli Lalparasaroi’s observation particularly resonated with the group: “To be able to work with the community, you must take time and listen to the community and see what they want to do.”
BREAKING BARRIERS
Real time translation between English, Samburu, Portuguese and Spanish allowed everyone in the room to fully participate in discussions and sharing ideas. With participants from 12 different countries, including Colombia, São Tomé and Principe, Mozambique and India, the meeting was a transnational affair.
For many conservationists not speaking a commonly shared language can be an obstacle to participating in international workshops. Shivani and her team proved that language should not be a barrier to conservation and collaboration – even in the most remote settings.
Hosted within Ewaso Lions’ project site, participants were surrounded by nature at all times – an inspiring backdrop to step away from daily life and demands and let creativity blossom.
It also meant that the WFN team had the opportunity to visit Ewaso Lions’ projects in person, getting to know the team, gaining further insight into their work and the challenges they face and overcome.
The final session of the week was on succession planning, an often overlooked but crucial activity for conservation leaders. The group discussed ways to ensure sustainability and continuity in conservation efforts, especially in the context of transitioning leadership to the communities. Read ‘Next in Line: Conservationists Conversations on Succession Planning’ – featuring Whitley Award winners and conservationists from around the globe.
LOOKING AHEAD
Since the workshop, the Ewaso Lions team have been expanding on the framework for successful community-led conservation, incorporating the experiences and lessons from the global conservationists present. The team will make their findings and learnings open source, forming the foundation for a worldwide shift in how conservation is practiced.
We would like to thank the Ewaso Lions team again for their hospitality and Samburu National Reserve and Westgate Conservancy for hosting the workshop at their headquarters. Thank you to all those that participated and made the week such a success.
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Images © Ewaso Lions
