Building Bridges with the Fellows Program

How we build bridges with our Fellows

Our Fellows Program provides funding, training, and a community of practice for a cohort of students, faculty, and practitioners to complete on-the-ground collaborative projects.

We embody the transformative power of collaboration in conservation by bridging learning, practice, and collaborative capacity.

A Community of Collaborative Conservationists

A unique strength of the CCC Fellows Program is the diversity within each cohort. Each interdisciplinary, multi-national cohort fosters cross-cultural learning, and the mix of perspectives enriches everyone’s experience and makes their conservation work more impactful. Since 2008, we have hosted:

The Fellows Program shapes participants’ trajectories. Through immersive experiences many Fellows change the way they approach their work.

In the CCC Fellows Program 10-year review: Assessment of impacts one Fellow remarked, “My fellowship experiences …have shaped my worldview and philosophy. I have learned that decisions based on good science and meaningful relationships built on trust, open communication, and the co-creation of knowledge are central not only to successful conservation outcomes, but are also some of the most personally rewarding parts of the process.”

Below Sebastian Africano, Director of Trees, Water, and People, shares his experience and how our Fellows Program shaped the trajectory of his career.

In their own words – Agua es vida. Water is life.

Water is the heart of Pintag Amaru, an Indigenous (Kichwa) community organization in Pintag, Ecuador. The community has observed contamination in rivers and irrigation channels from mining, deforestation, tourism, and agrochemical use. Through the CCC Fellows program, collaborative conservation is helping to make a difference. Find out more here!

Below, learn about this collaborative project in Ecuador!

Support Our Fellows!

If you are inspired by what you see, we invite you to join others in supporting our Fellows.

For more information on what contributing might mean for you,
please email the CCC Director, John Sanderson.

Join our Fellows Program

The Fellows Program is for those interested in conservation at any stage of their careers– including graduate students, mid-career professionals, academics, or experienced practitioners. During the program, Fellows learn and apply the practices that are the hallmark of successful collaborative conservation. 

Past Fellows projects have included:

Working with a diverse group of stakeholders to do on-the-ground conservation, such as a restoration, social science, or citizen science project.

Building the capacity of a group of stakeholders to collaboratively address a conservation issue. This type of project might include convening, training, planning, creating tools (such as an app, social network map, photovoice, etc.), doing outreach, or other activities.

Co-produce research that sheds light on how to do collaborative conservation.

Current Fellows

Cohort 14

$77,750 awarded to 22 Fellows working on 5 projects in Colorado and the Southwest USA, Mexico, Mongolia, and Brazil. Meet the Fellows and read about the projects here.

Cohort 13

$76,000 awarded to 12 Fellows working on 5 projects in Colorado and Montana, USA, Botswana, Cameroon, and Ecuador. Meet the Fellows and read about the projects here.

Recent Fellows

Cohort 12

$67,900 awarded to 10 Fellows working on 5 projects in New Mexico, USA, Tanzania, Colombia, India, and Guatemala. Meet the Fellows and read about the projects here.

Cohort 11

$42,300 awarded to 7 Fellows working on 3 projects in Colorado, Brazil, and Tanzania. Meet the Fellows and read about the projects here.

Cohort 10

$48,000 awarded 6 Fellows working on 4 projects focused on human-carnivore relationships. Meet the Fellows and read about the projects here.

Fellows Training

Our Fellows Program 10-year Review describes how the program trains individuals in collaborative conservation, and how, in the words of one CCC Fellows, ”there is pedagogy and evidence-based best practices for effective collaboration.” To access training materials we have used over the years, see our “how to” resources.

Fellows Products

CCC Fellows have produced over 150 theses, peer-reviewed journal articles, reports, videos and more that provide insight into collaborative conservation general and specific efforts across the globe. Check out the full list here.

Fellows Interactive Directory

Nearly 150 CCC Fellows have worked in 27 countries and 17 Native American nations. See who has done what where by clicking on this interactive map.

Fellows Testimony

95% of CCC Fellows Program alumni reported that their fellow’s project had been useful to them professionally.

96% reported that the Fellows Program had increased the collaborative nature of their project.

80% indicated that both their Fellow’s project and the Fellows Program had improved their ability to work with a diversity of people.

100% indicated that they had worked across cultural, disciplinary, administrative, or linguistic boundaries in their Fellows’ project.

“Being part of the CCC Fellows community was a defining moment in my professional development… Thank you!”

“I feel that the CCC played a really essential role in shaping me as a conservationist.”

“As a graduate fellow who now works in conservation, having a much better grasp on the idea of collaborative conservation has been really important in the way that I now view the world.”

“I never thought of collaboration as something that was teachable because it feels amorphous and ambiguous. The Fellow Program helped me see that there is pedagogy and evidence-based best practices for effective collaboration.”