By Damian Bell, CEO, Honeyguide Foundation
There is something about the morning air when one is sitting at a table looking across the Maasai Mara, listening to the early morning chorus of birds in the forest calling out, that inspires the mind to think creatively.
It was the perfect place for three organisations to bounce ideas off each other. In a matter of days, those ideas would evolve from being a ramble in the mind to a clear vision of collaboration and a catalyst leading to big results.
In February 2022, Honeyguide — a grass-roots, non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in Tanzania dedicated to supporting communities and the conservation of wildlife and natural resources through long-term community partnerships — attended the Tusk Trust Conservation Symposium in Maasai Mara, Kenya. The Symposium brought together African conservation leaders from across the continent and focused on building resilience in conservation. Over the course of the four days, Honeyguide participated in workshops, training sessions, and presentations that highlighted high-impact leadership, strategic collaboration and communications, diversifying funding, and creating opportunities from crises.
The Symposium created a space where Honeyguide, alongside other key conservation organisations, could network, connect, learn from, and, most importantly, collaborate with a diverse array of delegates. For Honeyguide and some select partners, this symposium was the catalyst for a major opportunity. During the symposium, Tusk announced a travel bursary of up to $2,000 for any collaboration efforts.
From a discussion between Honeyguide and Lion Landscapes, we saw the chance to use this opportunity to leverage an additional $2,500 from each partner to equally contribute towards an application for a Biodiversity Protected Areas Management Program (BIOPAMA), a grant that was worth over $160,000.
The funds put towards Tusk’s initial grant brought Honeyguide to a total of $10,000 to be used on a Site level Assessment of Governance and Equity (SAGE). The main criterion for the BIOPAMA funding was that it would only be granted to actions addressing key management and governance issues identified by a quantitative management and governance assessment tool. This meant if the organisation wanted to apply for this funding, they needed to do a SAGE fast!
As part of Honeyguide’s 2022–2026 strategic plan, there was a shift in our ways of working with the creation of our partnership model. Honeyguide knows that the only way to achieve the greatest impact is to partner with like-minded organisations with pre-existing relationships with WMAs and who are willing to work together to reach sustainability for them. The Tusk Trust collaboration grant ignited a spark that started with just 10,000 EUR and ended with 160,000 EUR going towards building the good governance of the WMA. This just shows the power of putting funds together and working towards a shared, common goal.
Looking ahead to this year’s Tusk Symposium, I hope 2024’s meeting stimulates similar collaborations and encourages ongoing dialogue when it comes to supporting communities and the conservation of wildlife and natural resources.
This blog is adapted from an article that first appeared in Tusk Talk 2023.
