Tusk Conservation Symposium 2022
Building Resilience in African Conservation
Sunday 27th February – Thursday 3rd March 2022
Venue: Sarova Mara Game Camp
For our third Tusk Conservation Symposium, we were joined by 60 of our project partners, trustees and donors in the stunning Maasai Mara National Reserve. Over four days, with the help of our partners, Maliasili, we looked at how the pandemic had affected all our work, what opportunities it presented by disrupting the status quo and how we can rebuild better for the future.
A series of success spotlights enabled peer to peer learning while workshops on diversifying fundraising, communicating for impact and leading resilient organisations provided expertise to our delegates.
An unforgettable field day was spent in the Naboisho Conservancy with delegates seeing first-hand a successful community conservation model hosted by our project partners the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association as well as the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association. Our partners the Maa Trust wrapped up the day with insight into their economic empowerment model for women and youth.
Previous symposiums have shown us and our project partners how important it is for conservationists to be given the opportunity to share and learn from each other. To enable this beyond the Symposium, we gave our delegates the opportunity to submit collaboration funding proposals borne out of their time at the event. 72% of the delegates in attendance submitted funding proposals and Tusk will be funding every single one of these – 19 collaboration grants in total for 28 projects to travel and learn from each other.
Quotes from Tusk Conservation Symposium 2022
The Symposium was really cutting-edge in how holistic and thought-provoking it was, while at the same time striking a great balance between sessions, networking and field visits. Partnering with Maliasili and all the amazing sessions, site visits, and conversations, and opportunities to discuss and network, really cut across all the pressing topics, ideas and challenges facing us all. In addition, after 2 years of keeping our collective heads down and prevailing through the pandemic it was wonderful to see everyone, and have some well-earned laughs and chats with people I now consider friends, colleagues, mentors and inspirations. Lastly, to have in the Mara–somewhere that’s always been on my bucket list–was amazing and so great to see it and all the wonderful work being done here.
My most enjoyable experience here was day 3. The visit to Naboisho Conservancy. It was most inspiring for me how the community has taken total ownership and it may not be perfect but it is admirable and way further in community involvement in conservation than I have ever seen anywhere else. A true inspiration.
The workshops were extremely professionally fulfilling. They challenged me to think about a number of topics in different ways and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from perspectives across Africa.
Guest speakers from outside the industry. It was the perfect mix of targeted conservation discussions and outside perspectives or presenting elements of the industry that may not appear to be directly relevant to each organisation.
