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News, Updates and Stories
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A New Resource: Conflict Management Toolkit
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The Ethical Conservation Alliance (ECA) is excited to launch its new Conflict Management Toolkit, a practical resource designed to help conservation practitioners, community partners, and policymakers navigate some of the most complex challenges in conservation today.
The toolkit addresses conservation conflicts, commonly referred to as ‘human-wildlife conflicts’. These are situations where wildlife impacts human lives, livelihoods, or safety, and where differing human values shape how these interactions are understood and addressed. The toolkit includes a comprehensive guidebook and a free, online audio-visual course to enable more effective, ethical, and collaborative conflict management.
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Latest News
Stay up-to-date with the latest news
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In-person Steering Committee Meeting: Washington DC, USA
From November 17–18, 2025, the ECA Steering Committee met in Washington, DC, generously hosted by the National Geographic Society (NGS). Six members –Dr. Alifereti Tawake (Co-chair), Dr. Hotlin Ompusunggu, Dr. Luisa Arnedo, Dr. Micaela Camino (Co-chair), Dr. Rodrigo Medellin, and Mr. Sonam Tashi Lama– attended in person, with Dr. Shivani Bhalla joining remotely. The meeting was supported by the ECA secretariat, including Dr. Charu Mishra (Secretary General & ex officio Steering Committee member) and Ms. Bayarjargal Agvaantseren (ECA Coordinator); hosted by Mr. Arslan Ahmad (NGS); and facilitated online by Dr. Suri Venkatachalam (ECA member). Over two days, the committee advanced ECA’s 2026 activity plan, defined priorities, and identified steps to strengthen and support ethical nature conservation worldwide.
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Karakoram International University (Pakistan) adds Ethical Community Engagement to Conservation Biology Curriculum
In a significant milestone, the PARTNERS Principles for ethical and effective community engagement have now been formally integrated as a teaching module in Karakoram International University’s BS-level course. According to Dr. Saeed Abbas, an ECA training graduate who led this process, this integration will help institutionalize ethical conservation and partnership-based approaches in the academic curriculum. Building on this progress, he also plans to conduct training courses for conservation professionals and the wildlife department staff. This development follows a similar integration of the PARTNERS Principles into undergraduate and graduate programmes at the National University of Mongolia last year, highlighting growing momentum toward embedding ethical, community-centered conservation in higher education.
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Updates on ECA’s training workshops
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ECA continues to champion ethical nature conservation and community engagement through training workshops for conservationists worldwide. To date, the Alliance has reached 725 conservationists from 62 countries through 35 introductory orientations or full training workshops, with women accounting for 47% of participants. Our recent workshops include:
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PARTNERS Community Engagement training in Patagonia, Argentina
On September 21-22 2025, Dr. Micaela Camino from Proyecto Quimilero conducted a workshop on local community engagement and the PARTNERS Principles in El Calafate, Argentina. Nine practitioners with 1-10 years of experience participated, all focusing on conservation with local communities.
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PARTNERS Community Engagement training in Bhutan
A three-day training workshop on the PARTNERS Principles was held from October 8–10, 2025, at the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Forestry Research and Training in Bumthang, Bhutan. The workshop was conducted by Phub Dorji, one of ECA’s training-of-trainers graduates. It was attended by 25 conservation practitioners, primarily forestry officials from protected areas and divisional forests offices. Participant feedback was highly positive, with significant gains reported in knowledge, confidence, and practical skills related to ethical community engagement.
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Ethical Conservation Workshop in Washington DC, USA
A two-day workshop on ethical nature conservation and community engagement was held from November 18-19, 2025, at the National Geographic Society, with 24 participants. Dr. Micaela Camino and Dr. Charu Mishra facilitated the workshop.
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Community-Centric Conservation and Human Wildlife Coexistence Workshop in Nepal
One of our training-of-trainers workshop graduates, Yangzom Tamang, facilitated a two-day workshop on “Community-based Conservation and Human-Wildlife Coexistence” in Jumla, Nepal, on February 2-3, 2026. She used PARTNERS Principles as a core tool for this workshop. A total of 15 participants from Mugu and Dolfu districts, with diverse backgrounds, including herders, took part in the workshop.
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PARTNERS Community Engagement training in Bangalore, India
A two-day workshop was held at the Nature Conservation Foundation in Bangalore on February 4-5, 2026. ECA member Deepshikha Sharma facilitated the workshop along with member and training-of-trainers graduate Karishma Pradhan. The workshop was attended by 8 conservationists from 6 organizations.
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From Training to Practice: Community-Based Conservation and Coexistence
Yangzom Tamang
How can global training translate into meaningful local action? Yangzom Tamang shares her journey from participating in the PARTNERS Principles training-of-trainers in Mongolia to leading a community-centric conservation workshop in Nepal’s remote Mugu region.
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How a Kenyan Community and a Zoo in Ohio are Strengthening Conservation Together
Dr Chloe Lucas
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What does it take to build lasting conservation partnerships? A decades-long collaboration between Kenya’s SORALO and the Cincinnati Zoo offers a compelling answer: trust, shared leadership, and a deep commitment to community-led action. Chloe Lucas follows a recently published paper by these organizations, exploring how they used the PARTNERS Principles to evaluate their relationships, and the lessons they learnt.
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Member Spotlight:
Herilalaina Randriamanantenasoa, Madagascar
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My name is Herilalaina Randriamanantenasoa. I have been working with Conservation Fusion (CF) since 2010, beginning as a translator and now serving as the national representative of CF in Madagascar.
My journey with CF has been deeply rewarding and transformative. When I started, I had no prior knowledge about conservation, but working with CF allowed me to grow immensely, learning about environmental protection, biodiversity, and sustainable practices. One of my greatest personal achievements has been using this knowledge to help my fellow Malagasy citizens understand the importance of conserving our natural resources.
Over the years, I have led environmental education programs in more than 20 schools, teaching over 2,000 children across the three rural sites where CF operates. I have also carried out outreach activities in 15 villages and organized workshops for hundreds of Malagasy primary school teachers.
What I truly value at CF is our belief that empowering people through education is the key to conservation. As part of this mission, I have developed training programs for local leaders, teachers, and women’s associations, helping to ensure that knowledge spreads throughout communities.
I have also coordinated large-scale tree planting campaigns with schools and organized conservation camps that offer immersive learning experiences combining hands-on activities, leadership development, and environmental awareness for youth. Seeing young people actively participate, care for their environment, and grow as conservation leaders remains the most rewarding outcome of this work.
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2026, Bhutan: 2-day training workshop on ethical community engagement for nature conservation.
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October 2026, Mozambique: Week-long training-of-trainers workshop on ethical nature conservation and community engagement.
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Also coming up this year, more training toolkits for conservation practitioners.
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Do you work with Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and are facing issues you would like to discuss, or get assistance on?
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Photo credit: Farwiza Farhan
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We request you to please forward this newsletter to at least ONE more person who might find it useful
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Photo credit: Sonam Tashi Lama
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If you’d like to make a donation to the Ethical Conservation Alliance, please write to us here
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Ethical Conservation Alliance is financially supported by:
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