Global Diversity Foundation

In 2025, our team came together for a Regeneration Process 🌱, taking time to pause, reconnect, and rethink how we work together. Guided by our Strategic Advisor Emily Caruso and facilitator Kanada G.orla, the journey combined reflection, mentorship, and a week spent side by side in Assilah, Morocco 🌊. Being together in one place allowed us to listen deeply, share openly, and collectively shape the foundations of our future 🙏. 🪡 Through four interconnected streams focused on mission, decision making, culture, and the future, we co created shared frameworks for storytelling, collaboration, and accountability. From clarifying our mission to writing a Team Charter that makes our values visible, this ongoing process has strengthened trust, alignment, and creativity across GDF, grounding our work in care, clarity, and collective intention. ✨

🌍 The Conservation & Communities Fellowship 2025 ✨ In early November, we launched the second edition of GDF’s Conservation & Communities Fellowship, a 7-month online and in-person programme for 30 community-based conservation leaders from the Global South. It is a unique learning experience designed to grow fellows’ mentoring, leadership and practical knowledge and skills, and to build a long-lasting community of practice. Just five days later, we were together in Naro Moru, Kenya, for a 5-day in-person gathering. We made the most of our time together: building relationships, connecting with nature and with each other, and exploring shared challenges, common areas of work, and opportunities for collaboration. It was incredible to see the fellows come together, each bringing their brilliance, experience, knowledge, and deep passion for conservation and communities. From leadership and mentoring sessions to open conversations about the everyday challenges conservation practitioners face, the heart of the week was clear: relationship-building. Fellows also had the opportunity to visit the Laikipia Wildlife Forum, a local conservation organisation and The Nanyuki Green Champions, one of the communities they work with, as part of a field trip, engaging in open discussions about challenges and solutions while learning from the local perspectives and conservation practices adopted by communities in the region. These in-person moments are essential for forging lasting connections that fellows create with one another, and with GDF. We’re excited for what’s ahead and can’t wait to share more about this collective journey💚 Photos 📸 by Victor Sayialel — The Conservation & Communities Fellowship is a conservation leadership and organisational development programme developed in collaboration with Common Purpose and The Human Edge

🌏 𝑹𝒆𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 has officially begun! In partnership between Global Diversity Foundation and PROTECTERRA ECOLOGICAL FOUNDATION, this intergenerational exchange brings together conservationists, activists, artists, researchers, and community practitioners from across South & Southeast Asia. Launched at the end of November, the programme gathers people who are deeply committed to earth-centred, community-rooted ways of responding to today’s most urgent environmental and social challenges. A space for listening, imagining, and regenerating. ✨🌱 >> Read more here : https://lnkd.in/gqDqx2Vh

Our project, the Patchwork of Belonging Wales/Morocco is participating in Voices for Change: A Night of Climate Action at the Natural History Museum, London!!! Join us this coming Monday 17 October, from 18:30 to 21:30 in the Shake Bar. Enter at the Central Entrance on Cromwell Road. The event is free but booking is required, please book here: https://lnkd.in/efHD4Mfb Come and see us and the final Morocco / Wales Patchwork quilt which weaves together testimonies of belonging from landscapes and communities in Morocco and Wales. The Patchwork of Belonging Wales was supported by The Natural History Museum’s Generation Hope Project, which delves into the challenges of and solutions to the climate and nature crises. In June we had the privilege of holding a workshop with SPAN Arts in Narberth and the @WeMove Group – a vibrant, creative and community-rooted project that celebrates the voices, cultures and experiences of Global Majority families across West Wales. With local Welsh food folk Abel Pearson and cee-cee manrique as well as the young people and their families, we thought about how questioning belonging to our local landscapes can make climate justice accessible. We also asked ourselves to think about the role that the food we eat and grow has in shaping that sense of belonging. We would like to thank all the trusts, foundations, companies and individuals who are supporting the Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery and programme including Natural Environment Research Council, Wellcome Trust, GSK, John Ellerman Foundation and Ørsted. This would not be possible without the wonderful Welsh quiltmakers SPAF Collective and Hunk Williams who stitched the quilt, Molara Awen who leads the We Move Group, Nisae Aska cooperative and artist Othmane Ouallal. We are deeply grateful for your collaboration. #FixingOurBrokenPlanet #GenerationHope #ClimateJustice #YouthMovements

✨ 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 ✨ Our first Conservation Futures Dialogues essay is now live: “Reimagining Conservation: Disruption, Relationship and Dreaming our Futures.” In this conversation between Dr. Carolyn Finney and Akshay Chettri, enriched with reflections by Emily Caruso and Francesca Masoero (Global Diversity Foundation), the authors explore the politics, imaginaries, and relationships shaping the futures of conservation. 🌀 Commissioned as part of our Repository with the support of the Darwin Initiative. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eYGP3vXH

✨ New guide out now! ✨ 🌱 𝑮𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 is live: a practical, field-tested guide co-created with argan cooperatives to strengthen governance, quality, traceability, marketing, and regenerative stewardship.🌍 We’re sharing it first with the participating cooperatives: Tighanimine, Argan Timgharine, and Bio.IDG, and then across our wider network of co-ops. Inside you’ll find: 📋 Best-practice checklists you can use right away 🧭 A roadmap for peer learning + direct trade 🌳 The first steps of a Cooperative Legacy Blueprint to support intergenerational resilience 🙏 Huge thanks to the cooperative leaders and members whose voices shaped this work. This guide was carried out by our intern, Andrea Worthoff, during her placement (2024–2025). Check it out through the following link : https://tr.ee/hxcQ7rOr4j

🌱 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 🌱 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐏𝐮𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐬í – 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐨, 𝐄𝐜𝐮𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫 🇪🇨 Through our last round of GEN Seed Project Funding, we were proud to support Guillermo Villalobos Moreira, a member of our GEN network, and his work with Centro del Pueblo Alangasí. 🐝 With this support, the community established a communal apiary on the slopes of the Ilaló volcano to train local farming families in agroecological beekeeping, revitalize traditional ecological knowledge, and strengthen collective stewardship of their territory. Over the past year, Guillermo and the community: 🌼 Trained ten members (seven women and three men) in sustainable beekeeping practices 🌼 Built and maintained the communal apiary through mingas (collective work days) 🌼 Developed a floral map and began creating an annual beekeeping calendar 🌼 Designed a collective visual identity and launched social media to promote their work Despite climatic and organizational challenges, the project fostered stronger communal bonds, created new opportunities for women and youth, and laid the foundation for honey production and local market participation in the near future. We are deeply inspired by Guillermo’s leadership and the community’s resilience, and we look forward to their first honey harvest and beyond. 🍯✨

🌍🦒 From Kenya’s Rift Valley to Zambia’s great rivers and Madagascar’s forests, our 2024 Conservation & Communities Fellowship Alumni in Africa are proving that conservation thrives when rooted in community, culture, and local leadership.🤝 Rosebell, Simon, Wangechi, Samson, Silole, Ali, Swithin, Josia, and Kanto are safeguarding endangered species, protecting forests and wetlands, uplifting indigenous voices, and building futures where people and nature flourish together. We’re so proud of the diverse, impactful, and transformative work our fellowship alumni are doing across Africa and beyond.🧡 #CCF #FellowshipAlumni #Africa

🌍 From Nigeria’s rainforests to Cameroon’s landscapes, from the Congo Basin and across Tanzania’s savannahs, our 2024 Conservation & Communities Fellowship Alumni in Africa are at the forefront of protecting biodiversity while uplifting the people who depend on it. 🤝 Rachel, Ndimuh, Valery, Gervais, Yannick, and Lameck are safeguarding endangered species, restoring ecosystems, empowering youth and communities, and shaping policies for a more sustainable future. We’re so proud of the diverse, impactful, and transformative work our fellowship alumni are doing across the continent and around the world. 🧡 #CCF #FellowshipAlumni #Africa

𝗔𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗮𝗴𝘂𝘀 🌊 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 [𝗶𝗶𝗶] 𝗼𝗳 𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿(𝗹)𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 🌱 𝐴 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎 𝑀𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑠 For this new episode of “Rewor(l)ding Conservation”, we invited curator, researcher and pedagogue Margarida Mendes to open up her sonic archives around the Tagus river in Portugal, unpacking her practice as a multidisciplinary researcher exploring how sound can be used not only to describe, but also to sense changing ecosystems 🌍. Situating herself in the watery world of the Tagus wetland 💧, and drawing from her PhD research “Sensorial Ecologies”, in this two-part episode we follow Mendes’ voice as she introduces her work around how sonic practices can be mobilised towards ecological and community reparation and conservation. 👂 Her storytelling offers an example of how listening can shape one’s understanding of the environment, mediated by sensing infrastructures, interspecies interactions, and the impacts of extractive industries. The second part of the episode is an invitation to engage with deep listening, opening our ears to the flows and ebbs of the river, guided by meditative scores that bring us to an embodied relationality with its fluxes and pulses 💫. Listen here: https://shorturl.at/0xny0 #CFD #conservationfutures #deeplistening #soundecology #tagus #tejoriver