Applications Open for 2024 kinship Conservation Fellowship ($8,000 grant)

The Kinship Conservation Fellowship is a program that supports conservation practitioners from all over the world. It aims to enhance your career and provide you with new skills, insights, and analytical tools to boost the progress of your projects at home.

During the month-long Fellowship, which takes place at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, USA from June 30 to July 30, 2024, you will focus on market-based solutions in conservation. The program is designed to cultivate your leadership skills in this field. Through interactive discussions, systems-thinking exercises, and peer-learning sessions, you will engage with stories and innovative solutions to tackle complex challenges that you can then apply to your own work.

The program’s curriculum, delivered by a faculty of global experts, is tailored to the specific opportunities of each year’s cohort. It exposes Fellows to the six Kinship Conservation Pillars for market-based solutions, which include leading adaptively, iterating for scale, designing for governing the commons, identifying an economic engine, financing conservation, and evaluating for impact. The faculty works closely with each Fellow to explore new ways of applying market-based approaches to environmental issues.

In addition to classroom training sessions, the program also includes field trips and excursions to learn about real-world conservation issues. These experiences provide valuable insights into topics such as sustainable forestry and fishing practices, which are integral to the region’s landscapes.

Furthermore, there is plenty of time for Fellows to explore Bellingham and connect with each other. Meal nights featuring international flavors and cuisines provide opportunities for informal gatherings where Fellows, faculty, and Kinship Foundation staff can bond and form lifelong friendships.

Benefits

• Become a part of our global network of conservation leaders! As a Kinship Fellow, you’ll join a community of like-minded individuals from 66 countries across 7 continents.
• Even after the month-long fellowship, you’ll continue to collaborate and network with your cohort and the wider community.
• Our past Fellows have gone on to become program faculty, organize regional learning summits, and work together on research and projects.
• And as a member of Kinship Conservation Fellows, you’ll have access to ongoing support and opportunities throughout your career.
• Plus, as a Fellow attending the program in Bellingham, WA, you’ll receive a stipend of US$8000 (minus applicable taxes).

How to Apply

Are you a conservation leader with at least five years of experience in the field? Are you passionate about using market-based approaches to solve environmental problems? If so, we want you to be part of our expanding community of global leaders.

To apply for our Fellowship program, you will need to submit a project proposal that outlines an environmental issue you are working on and how you plan to develop a solution using market approaches.

During the Fellowship, we strongly encourage collaboration on group projects. This allows you to build upon the collective expertise of your cohort and the proposed projects, as well as ideas from the curriculum and faculty.

Successful applicants should have a good understanding of business and economic principles and work in a setting where these principles can be integrated with conservation work. Each year, we select 18 applicants to participate in the Fellowship program.

Eligibility and Evaluation

To be considered for the program, you must meet the following requirements:

– Possess a minimum of a four-year U.S. college degree (or its equivalent).
– Have at least five years of relevant work experience after completing your degree.
– Be proficient in spoken and written English.
– Be a conservation practitioner, rather than an academic or researcher.

We evaluate applicants based on the viability and appropriateness of their proposed projects, their leadership potential, and their potential contribution to the Fellowship program and ongoing membership in the Fellows Community.

If you meet the requirements and are ready to make a difference in the field of conservation, apply now!