JANUARY 25, 2016
Generous support for the
Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) from Fondation Segré Conservation Fund
at Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is already creating valuable
opportunities for an already thriving global network of CLP alumni to share
their skills through the Learning Exchange Programme, as a recent example from
Colombia illustrates.
It is well over two
decades since Professor Stuart Marsden cut his conservation teeth as a member
of a CLP-funded project team from Manchester Metropolitan University studying
some of the restricted-range bird species on the Indonesian island of Sumba.
Today, he is Professor of Conservation Ecology at that very same institution.
In July 2015, courtesy of CLP’s Learning Exchange Programme, Stuart found
himself in Colombia, passing on some of the knowledge and tricks of the trade
that he has acquired in the intervening 22 years. The young conservationists
hoping to benefit from his experience in project planning, field survey
techniques and analysis were Eliana Fierro-Calderon and Diana Eusse-González,
who currently work for Asociación Calidris, a Colombian NGO engaged in bird
conservation.
Recipients of a CLP grant
in 2008, Eliana and her team won a multi-year Follow-up Award in 2014 to extend
their research across two of the world’s most important avian hotspots. The
Colombian Inter-Andean Slopes and Chocó Endemic Bird Areas were the intended
focus of their ‘Promoting
conservation of threatened bird species in western Colombia’
project.
Although it was not
originally envisaged as part of the formal mentoring process, the local team
soon picked up useful tips from Stuart on how to prioritise when deciding what
to include in the study. His first contribution was a lesson in pragmatism. In
view of their budget and time constraints, he suggested that Eliana and her team
limit the geographical scope of the study to one of these two locations, in
order to maximise their time in the field, increase the frequency of site
visits, and cut down on transportation costs.
No comments:
Post a Comment