Deadline: 10 October 2023

Applications are now open for the CLP Future Conservationist Awards 2023 . The Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) is a training and capacity building programme aimed at individuals from developing countries who are at the beginning of their conservation career and demonstrate leadership potential.

As a partnership initiative between BirdLife International, Fauna and Flora International and the Wildlife Conservation Society, CLP develops the leadership skills of early-career conservation professionals working in locations with limited capacity to address high-priority conservation issues. The partner organisations believe that the programme's success can be attributed to the fact that it goes beyond awarding grants, providing ongoing support and access to networks that help awardees acquire skills and move up the conservation career ladder.

Since 1985, CLP has supported and encouraged thousands of individuals who are at the beginning of their conservation careers and aim to address global conservation priorities at a local level. CLP has been an important step for many individuals and has helped facilitate the discovery of species new to science, the designation of new protected areas, knowledge sharing and collaboration, and the creation of mechanisms for long-term conservation, such as the creation of local non-governmental organisations and the creation of conservation policies and action plans.

Publicity

• CLP offers Future Conservationist Awards of up to US$ 15,000 each to develop the leadership skills of early career conservationists who want to make a positive difference in the field.

Eligibility

To be eligible for a CLP Future Conservationist Award, the team and project must fulfil the following eligibility criteria.

Team

• The CLP Awards are for team-based conservation projects - each team must have at least three people.
• 50% or more of the team members must be nationals of the country where the project is taking place.
• The team leader must be a national of the country where the project is being carried out. Co-leadership with a foreigner will be considered, subject to clear justification.
• All team members must be early career conservationists with no more than five years' professional experience in the conservation sector. Professional experience" does not include research towards a university degree. Individuals with more than five years' professional experience in the conservation sector are not eligible for CRE support and should not apply.
• No team member may be a paid part-time or full-time employee or contractor of a CLP partner organisation, including BirdLife International, Fauna & Flora and Wildlife Conservation Society, at any time from project development to implementation.
• Any staff member volunteering at a CLP partner organisation at the time of application and/or project implementation MUST be declared in the application. You should also explain how the CLP proposal differs from the work of the partner organisation.
• Applicants may participate in only one CLP project at a time and in a maximum of three Future Conservationist Award projects in total, occasionally as team leader for no more than one Future Conservationist project.

Project

• CLP offers support to early-career conservatives living and working in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The project must take place in one of the eligible countries.
• The duration of the project must not be less than three months or more than one year.
• The total CLP funding request must not exceed US$ 15,000 and CLP funding must cover at least 50% of the total project budget.
• The project should focus on globally important species for biodiversity conservation that are at risk. We consider a species to be "at risk" if it is designated as globally threatened (CR, EN, VU) or data deficient (DD) by the IUCN Red List OR if there is information to suggest that urgent conservation measures are needed.
• For projects focused on multiple species and/or taxonomic groups, at least one species in each taxonomic group under study must be at risk.
• The project should be for new work and not for the continuation of an already established and ongoing project.
• Applicants must demonstrate that the proposed project goes beyond the academic research carried out for the course of any member of staff.
• Projects that involve laboratory analyses must justify why this work is critical and urgent for conservation.
• The proposal must be drafted by the candidates themselves.

Application

Entries must be submitted by the deadline of Tuesday 10 October 2023. Entries sent by e-mail to CLP will not be accepted.

Click here to register

For more information, see Guidelines and visit CLP Future Conservationist Awards .