The “Capacity Building For Conservation” conference was hosted in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, by the Humbolt Institute in collaboration with Fundacion CONSERVA.
The conference brought together international conservation practitioners, scientists, educationalists and professional training providers in order to:
· Describe key practitioner needs in conservation capacity (skills, tools, knowledge) as well as common or unique issues in different global regions;
· Identify the main barriers preventing conservation organisations building their required capacity;
· List current gaps in conservation training and educational provision;
· Develop solutions to the core problems associated with developing and maintaining the skills and knowledge capacity to undertake effective conservation action;
· Review methods to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of capacity building actions;
· Strategically link the above training and education solutions to local, national and regional capacity building strategies;
· Exchange and learn from successful case studies of capacity building and education initiatives at local, national and regional scales;
· Participate part in workshops demonstrating new and upcoming conservation tools and techniques;
· Build links, partnerships and networks with conservation practitioners, professional training providers and relevant elements of the tertiary education community.