Today we’re speaking with Beth Thoren, Deputy CEO of Client Earth, and someone who’s spearheading a huge and exciting drive to create 20,000 jobs in nature through a new National Nature Service. We start our chat today about this big new idea and then discuss her role at Client Earth. Before then Beth shares her
Dr. Jane Hill is a professor and deputy head of the Biology Department at the University of York. Her eagerness and enthusiasm to protect ecosystems led her to explore the impacts of habitat fragmentation and climate change on temperate and tropical insect biodiversity. Research in Hill’s lab does not stop there; she also works on
Have you ever considered a career helping businesses manage natural resources, conserve biodiversity, adapt to climate change or become more sustainable? Tracey Edwards is a Sustainability Coach and Entrepreneur from Jamaica and founder of Plakortis, an environmental sustainability coaching service for businesses across Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. With over 15 years experience in the
David Fernandez is a behavioural ecologist conservation biologist. Behavioural ecologists play an important role in conservation. Behaviour links organisms and the environment and is a fundamental aspect of animal life. Changes to the environment can affect animal behaviour. For instance, the food available in degraded and pristine ecosystems might differ, which could in turn affect
Do you want a marine conservation career but don’t know where to begin? Are you unsure whether you can ever compete for a marine conservation job? In this Ultimate Guide, we’ll walk you (ahem, paddle you…) through all the information about the marine conservation sector you need to find the right job for you and
They may not have cuddly fur or feathers, but plants are crucial to the planet and its ecosystems and to us. Carlos Magdalena is the Tropical Senior Botanical Horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the largest botanical collection in the world. He has rescued several rare plants from extinction including Café Marron, brought back from
Today we’re talking to Dr. Kerry Kriger, the Founder and Executive Director of SAVE THE FROGS! Kerry is a powerhouse in the amphibian world, having set up an organisation to help save threatened frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and caecilians across the world. And he’s got his work cut out. Of the seven and a half
Jon Paul Rodríguez is an award-winning Venezuelan conservationist who wears many hats. As Co-Founder of local NGO Provita, he spearheaded work to nearly triple the number of Endangered Yellow-Shouldered Parrots in the wild, winning the Whitley Gold Award in 2019 in the process. More recently, he was elected as the first non-European and non-North American Chair of
Have you thought about starting a blog? Are you passionate about writing and communicating and want to share your thoughts, experiences and opinions? Will it make a difference? Kate Stephenson did just this nine years ago when she started her blog, Kate on Conservation. Now her award winning blog highlights important conservation issues, individuals and organisations and tries
Upside-down. Frozen. Stalled. Lost. The COVID-19 pandemic has put everything from university fieldwork and planned internships to job offers on hold, and left many conservationists feeling uncertain about their futures. It’s hard to accept when big plans are pulled from our grasp, when our hard-earned savings take a hit, or when a door slams shut
How do you grow a conservation organisation from 5 staff to over 500 in just over two decades? Why might Greta Thunberg be wrong to avoid air travel, and how is the conservation industry changing the way it hires staff in the 21st century? I discuss these issues and many more with today’s guest Mark Rose – Chief Executive Officer – Fauna &
With health and economic impacts at the forefront of global concerns, what’s happening to the people whose job it is to protect the future of our health, wealth and wellbeing – the planet? Rangers and researchers, fundraisers and filmmakers worldwide seek little recognition as guardians of the planet for future generations – the oceans we
COVID-19’s arrival in Africa will have disastrous repercussions for the local staff employed in conservation and the animals they protect. It does, however, highlight the danger of illegal wildlife trading and adds pressure for governments to act. Throughout Africa, conservation and wildlife tourism is primarily staffed by local Africans; guides, anti-poaching units, educators, drivers, cleaners, chefs, to name but a few. These people rely on the income to
Organisations tell Conservation Careers the challenges they are facing during the COVID-19 outbreak and how to help the industry at a time when it needs you the most. At the start of the year, COVID-19 or Coronavirus, was starting to hit headlines. Fast-forward to April and the unprecedented global outbreak and repercussions have taken many by surprise.
Conservation Careers speaks to the top person in global conservation – WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini. He shares his passion for wildlife, his career story of how he started out as a volunteer for WWF and ended up as their Director General, and provides advice and hope for people looking to start working in
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to switch careers into conservation, maybe moving from banking, marketing or law and supply your trade in an effort to save nature? Well, that’s what today’s guest has done in this special Fauna & Flora International podcast. Nick Bubb is the Business Development Director at Fauna & Flora
Are you interested in switching careers into conservation? Or perhaps you completed some studies and you wish you’d done something more conservation-y instead? So how do you transition across and how do you reskill? Today we’re talking to Dr Ada Grabowska-Zhang, from the University of Oxford. Ada is the Course Director for the Postgraduate Certificate
This week we’re talking to Victoria Price from Vision Wild, a new organization which designs, implements and evaluates wildlife conservation projects. In this podcast we discuss how to create a successful project and share tips for how to fundraise for conservation projects. We also explore the importance of project management skills for career development. If
On average every five minutes an albatross dies accidentally behind a fishing boat. Caught on a hook set for a fish, entangled in a net or striking a tensioned wire. During this episode a number of albatrosses will die needlessly. Dr Ben Sullivan has dedicated his career to tackling similar marine conservation issues. Starting with a PhD
With over 800 species of birds in South Africa and over 100 of them threatened, where do you start with trying to conserve them? Growing up in South Africa, Mark Anderson was taken out into the bush for days on end by his grandfather and from an early age he knew that he wanted to
Our planet’s seven species of sea turtle have captured the fascination of conservationists and concerned citizens the world over. In this post, we profile turtle conservation internships and volunteer opportunities around the world where you can help out. Maybe it’s the story of their against-all-odds journey from egg to open ocean and back, completing one
Action for Conservation (AFC) is a youth environmental education charity working to empower young people, aged 12-18, to take action on environmental issues that are important to them. AFC was founded in 2014 with a mission to bring the wonder of nature into all young peoples’ lives, inspiring a youth movement committed to conservation and
Have you ever considered doing a conservation science master’s course to kick-start your career in conservation? What would completing a masters course (degree) achieve? Is it right for you and would it lead to a conservation job? These are some of the topics covered in a wide-ranging discussion with Brendan Godley, Professor of Conservation Science
When the opening line of a story mentions an Aldi bag-for-life full of human poo, you know it’s gonna be worth reading on, right? That story was the winning entry in the Wildlife Blog of the Year competition and written by Gianluca Cerullo. He’s a conservation scientist and writer with a passion for adventure, wildlife
Conservation Careers Director Dr Nick Askew might just be the leading expert on the diverse conservation job market. Former Director of British Birds and former Communications, Marketing and Fundraising Manager for BirdLife International in the UK and Pacific (Fiji), Nick has raised over £2,500,000 for conservation projects across 120 countries and knows the conservation industry
In 1968 the global population of a small brown bird called the Seychelles Warbler, according to Nature Seychelles, was down to just 30 individuals. Habitat destruction and predation by introduced species like rats had driven the birds to the very edge of extinction and it was listed as critically endangered. Cycle forwards 50 years to
Perhaps the ultimate way we recognise our dependence on nature is when we see biodiversity as the foundation for the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. That’s precisely the theme of this year’s International Day for Biological Diversity, which recognises the power of biodiversity to transform global food systems,
When you think about wildlife and conservation efforts, do you feel overwhelmed by the challenges we face? Saddened by the state of the planet and the rate of biodiversity losses? Upset by the volumes of plastic in our oceans, that slaughter of migratory birds over Malta? Or the clearing of our rainforest for palm oil? Or, do
Joan O’Shaughnessy is a Conservation Scientist who switched from Laywer to managing the Dixon Prairie and the Skokie River Corridor with the Chicago Botanic Garden. Joan bravely decided to leave her stable (if personally unfulfilling) career as an attorney to achieve her dream of working outside, in the elements, with plants. Joan’s story demonstrates that
David Hetherington works as the ecology advisor at the Cairngorms National Park Authority. His career goal is to help ecological restoration in the Scottish Highlands through consensus and collaboration with a range of people, including land managers, conservationists, scientists and the wider public. In addition to his day job, through a growing network of colleagues
