Capacity

Image: iStock

Towards a stronger, more resilient conservation sector

Through our capacity strand, we are helping to build a stronger, better equipped, more collaborative, and more resilient biodiversity conservation sector.

We are constantly learning how we can best support our conservation partners, listening to their needs and providing tools and resources to help them fulfil their potential.

We actively promote increased and more effective funding for nature conservation, collaborating with other funders to reimagine environmental philanthropy, exploring more equitable and impactful approaches.

And we champion critical voices that are too often excluded from global discussions and decision-making on biodiversity.

Our approach to capacity

While a relatively small number of high-profile conservation causes and international organisations receive the lion’s share of global funding, there is a persistent lack of resources and effective support for many other brilliant, often smaller, community-based NGOs and Civil Society Organisations.

With this work, our goal is to address gaps in conservation capacity and philanthropic funding for the regions, ecosystems, and species that are the focus of our programmes. Our aim is to help strengthen every link in the chain: from the individual working on the ground, to the small, local organisations and civil society groups, and national and international NGOs; from the funders and philanthropists financing conservation, to the global processes and forums where decisions on biodiversity conservation are made.

The starting point for this work is recognition that the conservation partners we work with have a depth and breadth of capacity that we do not: knowledge of their environment and its biodiversity; understanding of the wider political, social, and economic context; their presence in the community, and their familiarity with culture and language. Without the capacity our partners already hold, none of what we do would be possible.

Three hands raised for an equality symbol

A man standing in the forest wearing a colourful shirt looks at the camera and holds his arm across his chest

A Dusun villager in Ulu Papar, where Synchronicity Earth partner TAKAD is working with local communities to oppose the vast Kaiduan dam project. Image © Chris Scarffe

Our three capacity pillars

Our capacity work has three key pillars: understanding our partners’ needs and supporting them to fulfil their potential; working together with other funders to promote more effective and equitable environmental funding; and championing diverse and vital voices in global conservation dialogues and processes for those who have historically been given less access to these spaces.

Supporting partners

Three women in conversation under a straw roof at an outdoor community meeting in the Pantanal, Brazil, facilitated by MUPAN

Effective partnerships are based on mutual understanding and support. By listening carefully to our partners and building strong relationships with them, we help to support them in the most impactful ways to achieve their conservation goals.

Reimagining Philanthropy

A farmer's hands hold out some colourful coffee beans in the community of Moyabamba in Chungui district in the Peruvian Andes

When philanthropy listens to the communities it aims to serve, value and impact are amplified. We work with other funders to promote more equitable funding based on understanding the needs and experience of our partners.

Championing diverse voices

A woman dressed in bright red with a feather in her hair holds a microphone and speaks at a CBD COP16 event while another woman looks on

We help to champion and connect people – small, community-led organisations; women; Indigenous Peoples; and youth – whose voices who have too often been absent from global biodiversity dialogues and decision-making processes.

Images L to R (above): A community dialogue with the Kadiweu people in the Pantanal, Brazil, facilitated by Synchronicity Earth partner MUPAN, image © Chris Scarffe. A woman farmer in the Chungui province in the Ayacucho region in Peru with a handful of coffee beans, image © Chris Scarffe. Yolarnie Ampedou of Synchronicity Earth partner Piku Biodiversity Network, Papua New Guinea, speaks at an event during the CBD COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia, image © Synchronicity Earth

Our capacity goals

Facilitate organisational development and skills

There is an urgent need to build the diversity and resilience of the environmental conservation sector by working closely with partners to provide the right tools and resources, training and skills, and organisational development to allow them to thrive and fulfil their potential.

Internal organisational development is an essential – but often overlooked – ingredient of organisational health and success. Synchronicity Earth provides core support for many of our partners, listening to their needs and funding training and skills development where these can help them to achieve their mission.

Support emerging conservationists, with a focus on women

In many places, it can be extremely challenging for emerging young conservationists to find meaningful roles and develop as leaders, particularly for women.

We aim to grow the number of organisations we support which have women in leadership positions and support emerging women conservationists to help them develop and grow in an often male-dominated sector.

Strengthening networks to support shared learning and advocacy

We recognise the need for greater connection and more joined-up approaches to conservation. Through our capacity work, we explore ways to connect our partners on a local level, and to link them into national, regional, and global stakeholder and policymaking networks.

Our goal is to create space for them to share knowledge and practice, helping them to learn from each other and supporting advocacy in national, regional, and global forums.

Promote increased and more effective funding for locally led organisations

There is an urgent need to expand and diversify sources of philanthropic funding and the effectiveness of this funding, to explore and counter the unequal power dynamics baked into much environmental philanthropy.

By collaborating with other funders and convening and joining dialogue around funding approaches and practice, we aim to help get more funding to the ground where it is most needed and help steer the wider environmental funding sector towards more equitable approaches.

Champion inclusion for all voices and stakeholders at global forums

Large global environmental conferences and dialogues often lack truly diverse and inclusive participation from many of the people most affected by the impacts of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss.

As part of our capacity work, we provide funding and support to individuals and organisations to ensure that they are able to participate in and contribute to global dialogues and decision-making processes, helping them to overcome obstacles such as difficulty obtaining visas, the relatively high cost of travel and accommodation, and complex UN processes and protocols. We believe that it is vital for all voices to be heard in these spaces, so we do what we can to help make this happen.

Two women sat next to each other during a workshop, one explaining while the other listens

Participants in a workshop run by Synchronicity Earth partner, WildAct, helping to train emerging young women conservationists. Image © Chris Scarffe

Local knowledge and expertise

Fundamental to our work is the principle that conservation efforts should be locally owned and led. Our ‘affiliates’ play a vital role, helping us to bridge gaps in regional or contextual knowledge and experience, strengthening our networks and helping us to deliver effective funding and support to our partners where it is most needed. Our team of affiliates continues to grow, providing deep understanding and expertise which we would otherwise struggle to access as a UK-based organisation.

Affiliates play a key role in: identifying potential new partners; developing a deep and comprehensive picture of the work and challenges faced by our partners informed by their cultural and linguistic knowledge; and working directly with partners to identify gaps in knowledge or expertise, and in turn help support them with the right training or skills to help them achieve their aims.

The value our affiliates add is often regional, particularly in the Congo Basin and Latin America. But they also bring expertise across a range of thematic areas, for example: working with Indigenous Peoples and local communities; empowering and mobilising young people to take action for biodiversity; local communications support and networks; and knowledge of specific ecosystems and species.

Our regional affiliates, such as Merline Touko Tchoko (left) and Julie Gagoe (right), help strengthen connections with our Congo Basin partners and local communities where they operate.

For funding to be most effective, you need to know the organisations well, understand what they are achieving, give them proper opportunities to present their results, and build strong relationships.

Julie Gagoe, Congo Basin affiliate