Director’s Message

Dear all,

I hope you are well and managing to keep going despite the ongoing pandemic. 2020 is finally behind us and 2021 promises to be a better year thanks to the arrival of new vaccines. Unfortunately, there are still difficult times to come, including here in the UK where we are experiencing a serious second wave of covid-19.

The Masters in Conservation Leadership has stayed strong, and we have an excellent cohort who are now mid way through their taught modules. We were able to have the great majority of lectures in person last term, which enabled the cohort to form the tight bond which is so important for the success of our course. Lent Term will have to take place fully online, but we hope it will be possible to return to in person working for the professional placements in the summer.

Throughout the pandemic, the Masters team has been working hard on our long-term strategy for 2020-2030. This has been the result of a great deal of consultation with key stakeholders, including inputs from many of you, for which I am very grateful. The strategy is built around three main goals: Design and deliver outstanding conservation leadership training, catalyse the impact of the University of Cambridge Conservation Leadership Alumni Network (UCCLAN), and establish a Global Conservation Leadership Community of Practice.

For the first goal we have already begun to implement plans to reform some aspects of the Masters, as you will have seen from the proposal and feedback survey that was circulated recently. We are also looking at the possibility of launching an online programme of conservation leadership training that would reach new audiences.

For the second goal we will be working closely with the UCCLAN Council to step up our activities in support of you all as you do your important work around the world. There are some exciting developments in this space that we hope to share with you soon. We also plan to invite more of you to contribute to the Masters itself as lecturers, mentors, placement hosts and providers of case studies.

For the final goal we will be working to formalise a network of conservation leadership capacity development organisations that we established in 2019 when we hosted a ‘new directions in conservation leadership’ event. By working in collaboration with others doing similar work we believe we can all improve our performance and also do more collectively to address currently unmet needs.

We are all very proud of the final strategy, which represents a step change in the level of our ambition. Building on our decade of experience and relationships, the strategy will enable us to build conservation leadership capacity at scale, where it is most needed, and with greatly increased accessibility. Look out for an invitation to the online launch of the strategy soon, until then I am delighted to be able to share it with you first through this newsletter. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas for how we could work together to bring it to life.

Here’s to the next ten years of our conservation leadership journey!

Chris Sandbrook

Cambridge, January 2021