The twentieth annual Student Conference for Conservation Science (SCCS)
The twentieth annual Student Conference for Conservation Science (SCCS) at Cambridge University was held this year between March 26-28th. Thirteen students in our MSc Conservation Science cohort were accepted to attend, along with 200 other students from over 50 countries around the world. This also included some Conservation Science students from past cohorts, who we were pleasantly surprised to meet.
We were attracted to this conference because it is the only international series of conservation conferences aimed entirely at students. SCCS’s stated aim is “to help young conservation scientists gain experience, learn new ideas and make contacts that will be valuable for their future careers.” Each of these aims was fully met. The conference held a diverse range of activities, including speed talks, poster sessions, networking events, workshops, and plenary seminars. All of the above helped expose students to the broad spectrum of cutting-edge work being done by both students and conservation professionals throughout the world.
Many of the workshops on offer focused on how to improve our skills as academics and conservation researchers, however the workshop lead by The Biodiversity Consultancy, a Cambridge-based company, provided insight into conservation in the private sector. It was a great opportunity to meet members of the team and discuss the opportunities and challenges which come from designing and implementing large-scale conservation projects to mitigate damage as an outcome of development. Working with clients across Africa and Asia, the workshop used global case studies to tie in nicely with the international feel of the conference. It was encouraging to see Tom White, a ConSci alumni from the 2017-2018 cohort, who now works at the consultancy as a researcher having made contact through his Master’s thesis.
Another highlight was the Conservation Evidence workshop held by the esteemed Prof. Bill Sutherland from the University of Cambridge. In this workshop, we were introduced to the conservation evidence website, which provides evidence for various conservation management practices to test their effectiveness and synthesise findings. The website holds a vast array of literature, allowing a conservation professional to delve into the details of each approach, making it an important tool for any aspect of project management. The site may also have farther-reaching benefits for less-developed countries and institutions as it is a great database of scientific publications that may otherwise not be accessible. Overall the workshop provided a great basis for planning and evaluating projects through the use of conservation evidence and will definitely be useful for our future professions.
Perhaps the most anticipated event of the conference was a Q&A session with Sir David Attenborough. Attendees were prompted via email to send in their questions and a handful of students were selected to present their question during the session to Sir David Attenborough himself. Holly Paget-Brown, Cassy Flint, and Grace Nolan from our group were selected. Holly describes the experience as “a great privilege and a high point in my conservation career thus far. It was fantastic to be able to listen to someone with so much experience in the industry and who had influenced my decision to dedicate myself to conservation. It was definitely a high point of the already very useful conference and made it a very memorable week.” Sir David was inspiring, impassioned, relatable, and at times even knee-slappingly hilarious. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and one that we will never forget as we move forward with our careers in conservation.
Amidst the immense diversity of presentations, there was space to reflect upon where our Masters in Conservation Science as a course fits into it all. The majority of projects presented at the conference were still ‘blue skies’ research, but an increasing number concerned the evaluation of conservation practices and their implementation. The merits of these presentations, alongside several workshops, were lauded above the others and given special recognition. One workshop was particularly valuable in this regard, where a member of staff from BirdLife International who specialised in project evaluation guided students through the creation of a ‘theory of change’ for a variety of projects currently underway. The provision of this professional context reinforced, the teaching that we have received throughout our course on implementing a desired change in a given project. In conjunction to this, both headline speakers, Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Sir David Attenborough, called for a movement into these areas of research. By design the Masters in Conservation Science emphasises all aspects of conservation, from research to implementation to monitoring and evaluation and thus is ahead of the curve regarding the future direction of conservation research. It is clear that our course is not only preparing us well for the amazing variety of research on display from all corners of the world, but left us with the sense that we are well-prepared for what our futures in this field will entail.
Attending this conference was an invaluable experience and one that every student and early career conservation scientist should take advantage of. This conference forced many of us out of our comfort zones by encouraging our networking skills, allowed us to talk to some of the world’s leading professionals and practitioners, and exposed us to the diverse range of research being conducted by our peers globally. We are immensely grateful to the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Tom Welton, for his generous grant that made this conference feasible for our cohort to attend.
Emma Hearne (on behalf of ConSci team)
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