Can conservation training make a difference?

Sep 8 / Adam Barlow

Quick answer

Four peer reviewed evaluations trace what conservation training changes once it ends, not just what trainees say they enjoyed. Together they cover a long-running practical training programme in Mauritius, a theory-of-change evaluation of a UK conservation charity's course portfolio, ten years of a Cambridge masters degree built around leadership, and a collaborative conservation capacity-building programme evaluated over the longer term. A consistent finding runs through them: knowledge and skills gained in training only translate into changed practice when they are paired with something else, a trainee's belief they can act on what they learned, a supportive work environment, or ongoing peer networks that outlast the course itself. Each case is summarised below with its findings and a link to the research.

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Contents

  • Why measuring training impact is hard
  • Mauritius: skills alone do not change behaviour
  • Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust: mapping the pathway from course to conservation outcome
  • The Cambridge Masters in Conservation Leadership: ten years of tracked impact
  • Collaborative conservation training: comfort, conviction, and identity
  • FAQ

    Why measuring training impact is hard

    Conservation organisations invest heavily in training, but tracking whether that investment changes anything beyond a trainee's immediate satisfaction has proven difficult across the sector. Impacts often only show up well after a course ends, they depend on factors outside the training itself, such as a trainee's workplace, and biodiversity outcomes can take years to materialise even when a trainee's practice has shifted. The four evaluations below each found a way through this problem, and each one adds a different piece to the picture of what makes conservation training work.

      Mauritius: skills alone do not change behaviour

      This study evaluated a long-running training programme delivered by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Mauritius, using a questionnaire and interviews with both trainers and past participants to build and test a theory of change. The researchers found that gaining practical skills did not, on its own, make trainees more effective in their jobs. What mattered was whether skills translated into a trainee's perception of control, their belief that they were capable of making a difference, which then carried through to real changes in effectiveness at work. Where a trainee's work environment was unsupportive, this chain broke down regardless of how much they had learned.

      The study's authors conclude that training providers who focus only on transferring skills and theory, without attention to trainees' confidence and workplace context, risk investing in courses that do not translate into practice.

      Citation: Sawrey, B., Copsey, J. and Milner-Gulland, E.J. (2019) 'Evaluating impacts of training in conservation: a case study in Mauritius', Oryx, 53(1), pp. 117 to 125. doi: 10.1017/S0030605316001691.

      Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001691

        Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust: mapping the pathway from course to conservation outcome

        Building on the Mauritius findings, this paper describes how Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust developed a formal theory of change to evaluate its full training portfolio, after more than 40 years of delivering courses to conservation practitioners worldwide. The team mapped the assumed pathway from course delivery through to conservation impact, then used mixed methods to identify indicators of change in the short, medium, and long term, instead of relying only on end-of-course satisfaction surveys.

        The paper is notable for treating evaluation itself as an evolving practice. The theory of change was built to be reviewed and adapted over time, giving the organisation an ongoing framework instead of a one-off assessment, and giving other training providers a template for building evaluation into programmes that were not originally designed with it in mind.

        Citation: Gerrie, R.M., Concannon, L., Copsey, J.A., Wright, T. and Young, R.P. (2022) 'Using a theory of change to evaluate the impact of a conservation training programme: a practitioner's perspective', Oryx, 56(5), p. 720. doi: 10.1017/S0030605321001551.

        Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605321001551

          The Cambridge Masters in Conservation Leadership: ten years of tracked impact

          The University of Cambridge launched a Masters in Conservation Leadership in 2010 to address a shortage of well-trained leaders able to catalyse change in the conservation sector. This evaluation tracked the degree's first ten years, drawing on international, gender-balanced cohorts of mid-career professionals recruited from the Global South and taught through applied, experiential methods designed to build both technical and leadership capacity.

          The researchers found moderate to transformational impacts on graduates' professional trajectories and practice, but the effects were not limited to individual careers. Graduates also reported changes in how they approached leadership itself, and the programme's design, especially its emphasis on peer learning within a diverse cohort, was identified as central to producing those effects. The paper is candid that no single training programme can meet the conservation sector's need for leadership capacity alone, and frames the degree as one part of a wider ecosystem of capacity development.

          Citation: Sandbrook, C., Nelson, H.P., Bolderson, S. and Leader-Williams, N. (2022) 'Evaluating the impact of the first 10 years of the Cambridge Masters in Conservation Leadership', Oryx, 56(5), pp. 710 to 719. doi: 10.1017/S0030605321000818.

          Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605321000818

            Collaborative conservation training: comfort, conviction, and identity

            This study evaluated a capacity-building programme focused on collaborative conservation, a relational field where the impact of training has historically been harder to define than for technical skills. Using mixed methods, the researchers built one of the first empirically grounded causal models linking a training programme's design to long-term change in participants.

            They found impacts across multiple dimensions of capacity beyond technical knowledge, including participants' comfort with collaborative approaches, their conviction that this way of working was effective, and shifts in professional identity. Three programme features stood out as driving these changes: flexible funding that let participants apply what they learned in their own context, immersion in a safe community of practice, and structured opportunities to experiment with collaborative approaches in real settings instead of only in the classroom.

            Citation: Hauptfeld, R.S., Jones, M.S. and Skyelander, K. (2022) 'Building Capacity for Individual and Systems-Level Collaborative Conservation Impacts: Intentional Design for Transformative Practice', Society & Natural Resources, 35(11), p. 1226. doi: 10.1080/08941920.2022.2111738.

            Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2022.2111738

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              FAQ

              Do all four studies agree on what makes training effective?

              They converge on a similar theme even though they studied different kinds of programmes. The Mauritius study found that skills need to translate into a trainee's confidence before they affect real-world practice. The Cambridge and collaborative conservation studies both point to peer networks and community as central drivers of lasting change. Across all four, technical content on its own is treated as necessary but not sufficient.

              Does a trainee's workplace affect the training's impact?

              The Mauritius study suggests it can carry as much weight as the training content itself. Trainees who gained skills and confidence but returned to an unsupportive work environment did not show the same gains in effectiveness as those in supportive settings. This has practical implications for training providers, since a well-designed course can still fail to produce change if nothing is done to prepare or support the workplace a trainee returns to.

              How long after a course does impact typically show up?

              It varies considerably. The Durrell evaluation was designed specifically to track short, medium, and long-term indicators instead of assuming impact would appear immediately, and the Cambridge Masters evaluation looked across a full decade to capture effects on graduates' careers and leadership approach. Short-term satisfaction surveys, still common across the sector, would miss most of the impact these longer evaluations found.

              Are these findings specific to conservation, or would they apply to other sectors?

              The mechanisms described, confidence as a mediator between skills and behaviour, the role of supportive environments, the value of peer networks, are not unique to conservation and echo findings from training evaluation research more broadly. What is distinctive about these four studies is applying that evaluation rigour specifically to conservation training, a sector where, as several of the papers note, monitoring and evaluation of training has historically lagged behind other areas of conservation practice.

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