By Errol Mazursky | Board Member
The third and final training session and graduation ceremony for the 2013/2014 Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders (EWCL) class took place on December 4th and 5th, 2014 at the headquarters of Defenders of Wildlife and World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C. EWCL -- a collaborative project between groups like White Oak, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Houston Zoo, and the Wildlife Conservation Network -- was designed to build further capacity for international conservation of wildlife within existing conservation organizations and entities. This is accomplished by providing training in leadership and campaigning skills, offering networking and mentoring opportunities, and facilitating tangible on-the-ground conservation projects that benefit imperiled wildlife.
The 2013/2014 EWCL class was comprised of twenty-two carefully selected up-and-coming leaders in the wildlife conservation field. Class members included individuals from a wide variety of non-profit, private, and government groups, as well as five participants from outside the United States. This group gathered in Washington, D.C. to present their final two-year project results, share lessons learned, participate in intensive skills and leadership training, and discuss project evaluation and career direction with mentors.
Training topics covered during this session included: Strategies for Getting Publishing, Fundraising, Multinational Environmental Institutions and Funding Opportunities, Advocacy Training, Endangered Species Act Primer, Presentation Skills, Working with Celebrities, Using Photography in Conservation Work, and Communications Training from Spitfire Strategies. In addition, participants presented their final projects to nearly one-hundred EWCL Board members, EWCL Alumni, and prominent conservationists from the DC area.
During the two-day meeting, the four project groups shared their results and lessons learned from their group wildlife conservation projects. They also received detailed feedback from EWCL Board-members on their planning, implementation and evaluation strengths and weaknesses, as well as advice on ways to build on conservation project performance results in the future.
Post graduation, participants were provided time to share their comments and suggestions on how the EWCL program could continue to benefit other up-and-coming conservationists. Their input from several evaluations will be integrated to help inform the workshops for the next class commencing in early 2015.
The mission of EWCL is to facilitate cross-organizational networking for emerging environmental leaders while conducting training and guiding concrete innovative conservation projects on a bi-annual basis. Wildlife conservation benefits from the nurturing of future leaders, information sharing and idea exchange amongst conservation entities, and the tangible conservation products generated as part of the group campaign exercise.
If you have any questions about this initiative, contact EWCL Program Officer, Anne-Marie Mascaro at amascaro@white-oak.org or 904-225-3359.
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By Errol Mazursky | Board Member
By Errol Mazursky | EWCL Board Member
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