Family funding

Tjalle Boorsma and Gabriel Massocato

Tjalle Boorsma, who protects blue-throated macaws, and Gabriel Massocato, a giant armadillo conservationist, went on an exchange in 2023 to see how they could learn from, collaborate with, and help each other. The main aspect that connects these two species is that both live in the tropical savannas of South America where fire is a recurring threat. Sponsored by the FFN Family Funding, Tjalle and Gabriel visited each other’s conservation project to exchange knowledge about how to prevent, minimise and combat fires.

Maggie Muurmans and Inza Koné

In 2022, Maggie Muurmans and Inza Koné joined forces to develop an inclusive and collaborative method for effectively increasing community engagement and participation in conservation management. Part of this project was funded through the FFN Family funding. While community engagement is an essential component of nature conservation projects, there is a risk that they are not well received by local communities when their values and goals are not aligned. That is why Maggie and Inza studied and tested a co-design process that actively involves collaboration with and participation of local communities. Maggie created a co-designing toolbox, which was tested in the field with the help of Inza in the Ivory Coast.

José González-Maya, Fernanda Abra, and Els van Lavieren

José González-Maya, Fernanda Abra, and Els van Lavieren successfully applied for the Family Funding in 2021, for a visit to each of their field sites to investigate potential areas for collaboration. During the summer of 2022, they visited José’s project in Colombia. A comment from Els about the experience: “I learned so much and feel so inspired after spending a week with Fernanda and José and the team of ProCAT in the field. This exchange program is very valuable and will lift FFN’s impact to the next level by working regionally and collaborating on each other’s projects. In early 2023, the group met up in Brazil, to learn more about Fernanda’s road mortality work.

Mohammad Farhadinia and Hana Raza

Mohammad Farhadinia and Hana Raza successfully applied for the Family Funding in 2020. The aim of their project was to set up a Persian leopard conservation and monitoring programme across Iran and Iraq. Within their programme, they set up training and capacity building for local conservation practitioners across both sides of the border on monitoring leopards and mitigating conflict with communities. Additionally, they conducted systematic camera trapping survey to develop baseline status for Persian leopards. All these steps provide information about the wild populations in the region, and ultimately help in the creating of conservation management plans.