Global Gathering – Cyprus 2025

Conservation Collective’s annual Global Gathering for 2025 took place from 5th to 9th May in Cyprus, at the village of Kalopanayiotis, nestled in the Troodos mountains.  

This year, 44 members of our global network took part in the Gathering, including Executive Directors and team members from 18 of Conservation Collective’s 22 foundations, alongside the central team of 12, from the UK.  

We stayed in Casale Panayiotis, the first (and so far, only) hotel in Cyprus to achieve the coveted Global Sustainable Tourism Council certification. This beautiful, sensitively designed, mountain spa retreat which serves hyper-local food, was the creation of a local businessman who, having forged a successful global career, wished to give back to his home village by breathing new life into the community.  

The annual CC Global Gathering is a crucial moment for our network, normally scattered across the world, to get together, meet new members and share specialist knowledge. Over the five days we spent in Cyprus, structured sessions on topics including Measuring Impact and Fundraising, were interspersed with more informal discussions to compare notes, explore opportunities to collaborate and share learnings. For the first time at a Global Gathering, we trialled a ‘Knowledge Café’, enabling small group discussions on particular pre-defined topics including crisis communications, finance and people management. 

In another first, this year, we ran concurrent thematic groups to explore the possibility of co-creating shared programmes on common topics. For instance, across the network there are already several local Foundations supporting biodiversity restoration, restoring pollinators, galvanising community action and fighting marine by-catch. Using the creative arts to educate and promote circular economies is another area where work is already being carried out in multiple locations. We explored the opportunities and the feasibility of collaboration between network members on these topics, how we could share best practice and enable funders to support work by topic rather than geography. Deep discussions saw multiple ideas proliferate. Watch this space! 

Taking over the reins as host nation from Devon Environment Foundation, Sofia Matsi, Executive Director of Cyprus Environment Foundation (CEF), arranged for us to meet some of her local grantees, including the team from Kuşkor, who are working tirelessly to study and protect the endangered Bonelli’s Eagle in the Pentadaktylos mountain range.  We also had a session with the inspirational team behind a project working with children to increase marine environmental awareness through the creative arts. This innovative curriculum has achieved formal recognition from the Cypriot Government and European Union and may well hold the answer to inspiring new generations to tackle the crises facing our planet. 

During our week at Casale Panayiotis, each foundation took the opportunity to present to the rest of the group, outlining their story, areas of interest and giving a ‘spotlight’ presentation on one of their recent projects. We heard from the Executive Directors of our two brand-new foundations, Malaga Province Environment Foundation and Antigua & Barbuda Environment Foundation.  

• Amongst the more established foundations, Mallorca Preservation highlighted their study on the use of plastics in agriculture, supported by Depeche Mode and Hublot through their partnership with Conservation Collective. 

• Dalmatian Islands Environment Foundation’s Executive Director, Inga, used the opportunity to highlight a project recording the distribution, size and health of Cladocora caespitosa, otherwise known as pillow coral, creating a database of this endangered species, whilst demonstrating the effectiveness of citizen science in marine conservation.  

• Lamu Environment Foundation was represented by Fridah Gitonga, who also works as Finance Officer in the CC core team. With mangroves in Kenya being degraded at an alarming rate, Lamu Environment Foundation has funded a project to introduce modern beekeeping as an alternative livelihood in tandem with the restoration of degraded mangrove ecosystems.  

• Sicily Environment Fund’s Executive Director, Gaia outlined how her region is one of the most wildfire-affected areas in the Mediterranean, and how a community-led participatory planning pilot has enabled new management measures and guidelines to reduce the incidence of wildfires, bringing together local authorities and decision makers. 

 

To round off this intense but joyful week of collaboration and learning, on the final night in Cyprus, we held our annual Collectives Awards ceremony. This event celebrates the best projects supported by our foundations across the network, presented this year by internationally renowned Cypriot filmmaker Stelana Kliris.   

Huge congratulations, not only to the runners-up and winners of these awards, but to all who submitted applications. Our Global Advisory Panel had a real challenge deciding who to select, in a field where the calibre was incredibly high.  Find out about the winners and highly commended projects here. Our heartfelt thanks go to all the grantees, local partners, and worldwide local environmental heroes that make these projects happen. It is such a privilege to be able to work alongside you all.  

Cyprus Environment Foundation hosted an incredible Global Gathering for 2025, and we are hugely grateful to Sofia Matsi and Stephanie Polycarpou for giving us all such a thoughtfully curated experience of Cyprus. We must also thank Iona Marshall and Kendra Walsh for their utter commitment to the planning and smooth running of the week. We are immensely grateful for all your hard work!