What makes conservationists persevere? Resilience strategies at work

Modern day conservation professionals are faced with cognitive and emotionally demanding tasks and a wide range of working conditions, which may include long hours, isolation from friends and family, and high levels of uncertainty, e.g. the socio-political contexts in which organizations and their staff must function. Positive adaptation to professional challenges, here referred to as resilience, can help individuals thrive in their role. In this qualitative study, we explored factors relating to positive and negative psychological states. We interviewed twenty-two individuals with professional experience working in high-biodiversity countries that have limited informational, human and financial resources. We used thematic analysis to identify themes and strategies to promote resilience in the workplace. Results revealed factors associated with positive psychological states included answering an occupational calling, achievements, and recognition and appreciation for work. Organisational policies and administration, especially perceived unfairness regarding salaries, recruitment policies, promotion and professional development, were connected to negative psychological states, as were other factors related to the job context. Respondents shared their professional resilience strategies, such as appreciating the positives and maintaining optimism, aligning work with one’s values, and personal reflection and goal setting. Organisations can play an important role in supporting employees in the process of building resilience by addressing basic needs and factors that are of motivational value

Professional development in conservation: An effectiveness framework

Contemporary conservation professionals are part of a workforce focused on overcoming complex challenges under great time pressure. The characteristics of conservation work, and in particular the evolving demands placed on the workforce, mean that to remain effective these professionals need to enhance their skills and abilities continually. Currently, there are no sector-wide guidelines to promote systematic professional development that addresses both individual and organizational learning. This study builds upon existing knowledge from other sectors by examining professional development in conservation through an in-depth qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with 22 conservation professionals, resulting in an effectiveness framework for professional development in the conservation sector. Our findings indicate how individuals’ motivation to learn, proactivity, open-mindedness towards alternative information and views were considered preconditions for effective professional development. A balance between organizational goals and career ambitions was found essential to maintain this motivation to learn and vital for staff retention and preservation of institutional knowledge. Professional development plans may help distinguish between individual career aspirations and organizational objectives and aid a discussion between staff and management on how to balance the two. Leaders have the opportunity to remove barriers to effective professional development. We discuss solutions to overcome specific barriers, to promote an inclusive approach for diverse learners through provision of opportunities, effective learning design, and resource distribution for professional development. This effectiveness framework can be used by conservationists and conservation organizations to plan and decide on professional development

Strengthening capacity for species conservation in South-east Asia: a provisional assessment of needs and opportunities for the Asian Species Action Partnership

South-east Asia is home to exceptional biodiversity, but threats to vertebrate species are disproportionately high in this region. The IUCN Species Survival Commission Asian Species Action Partnership aims to avert species extinctions. Strengthening individual and organizational capacity is key to achieving long-term, sustainable conservation impact, and is a core strategic intervention for the Partnership. To look at the needs and opportunities for developing capacity for species conservation in South-east Asia, we undertook a needs assessment with organizations implementing species conservation within this region. We conducted a review of available training opportunities, mapping them against a list of identified competences needed for species conservation to determine gaps in current training. Our assessments revealed an imbalance in the focus of training opportunities vs the actual competences needed for effective species conservation, and that training opportunities within South-east Asia are limited in number and highly competitive. These findings corroborate other similar reviews, particularly on capacity gaps in the Global South. We discuss the implications of our review and use the findings to generate recommendations

Donor perspectives on strengthening capacity development for conservation

Global perspectives on the pathways for developing capacity for conservation remain limited. Hindering the robustness of solutions is a dearth of opportunities to foster discussion and dialogue among capacity development practitioners, academics, partners, beneficiaries and donors. Additionally, little is known about donor perspectives on capacity development, and about pathways to developing a more sustainable investment in capacity development for conservation. The 2019 Capacity Building for Conservation Conference in London, UK, provided a unique opportunity to convene more than 150 capacity development practitioners from the global conservation community. The Conference included structured opportunities to hear donor perspectives on strengthening capacity development. Session leaders took detailed notes to document donor perspectives and the discussions around them. A thematic analysis of this empirical evidence resulted in the identification of four key themes with corresponding recommendations, consisting of (1) collaborative design of capacity development initiatives, (2) monitoring and evaluation, (3) longer-term and flexible investments, and (4) building strong relationships between donors and grantees. Given the Convention on Biological Diversity is currently drafting the long-term strategic framework for capacity development post-2020, and global calls to protect significant portions of our land- and seascapes, our recommendations are timely and may inform a way forward

The state of capacity development evaluation in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management

Capacity development is critical to long-term conservation success, yet we lack a robust and rigorous understanding of how well its effects are being evaluated. A comprehensive summary of who is monitoring and evaluating capacity development interventions, what is being evaluated and how, would help in the development of evidence-based guidance to inform design and implementation decisions for future capacity development interventions and evaluations of their effectiveness. We built an evidence map by reviewing peer-reviewed and grey literature published since 2000, to identify case studies evaluating capacity development interventions in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. We used inductive and deductive approaches to develop a coding strategy for studies that met our criteria, extracting data on the type of capacity development intervention, evaluation methods, data and analysis types, categories of outputs and outcomes assessed, and whether the study had a clear causal model and/or used a systems approach. We found that almost all studies assessed multiple outcome types: most frequent was change in knowledge, followed by behaviour, then attitude. Few studies evaluated conservation outcomes. Less than half included an explicit causal model linking interventions to expected outcomes. Half of the studies considered external factors that could influence the efficacy of the capacity development intervention, and few used an explicit systems approach. We used framework synthesis to situate our evidence map within the broader literature on capacity development evaluation. Our evidence map (including a visual heat map) highlights areas of low and high representation in investment in research on the evaluation of capacity development

Professional development in Conservation: an effectiveness framework

Contemporary conservation professionals are part of a workforce focused on overcoming complex challenges under great time pressure. The characteristics of conservation work, and in particular the evolving demands placed on the workforce, means that these professionals require capacity development to continually enhance their skills and abilities to remain effective. Currently, there are no sector-wide guidelines to promote systematic professional development that addresses both individual and organisational learning. This study builds upon existing knowledge from other sectors by examining professional development in conservation through an in-depth qualitative content-analysis of interviews with 22 conservation professionals, utilising a framework derived from the education sector. Results indicate how individuals’ motivation-to-learn, proactivity, and open-mindedness towards alternative information and views were considered preconditions for effective professional development. A balance between organisational goals and career ambitions was found essential to maintain this motivation-to-learn and vital for staff retention and preservation of institutional knowledge. Professional development plans may help distinguish between individual career aspirations and organisational objectives and aid a discussion on how to balance the two. Supportive leadership is fundamental to identify and mitigate any tension between people’s professional goals and programme priorities. Leaders have the opportunity to respond quickly and in novel ways to balance and address staff needs and organisational goals while working to remove barriers to effective professional development. Solutions to overcome specific barriers are discussed, to promote an inclusive approach for diverse learners through provision of opportunities, effective learning design, and resource-distribution for professional development