Conservation Collective Global Gathering

In March the Conservation Collective foundations gathered in Ibiza for a retreat combining workshops, field trips, and knowledge exchange.

 

After two years of pandemic work-from-home Zoom meetings, the local directors of our 15 foundations were invited to join us at a 4-day event in Ibiza.. We took this as an opportunity to finally meet some of the latest members of the Conservation Collective family whom, due to Covid-19 restrictions, we had only seen through a computer screen. As Jade Brudenell, executive director of the Conservation Collective, put it in this newspaper interview with El Diario de Ibiza, “[We] wanted to meet face to face and look for more effective ways to work together for the future, to support each other and to share solutions to common problems”.

During the trip, the Conservation Collective organised a series of workshops aimed at solidifying and strengthening the network, the model it has developed to encourage more effective environmental philanthropy,  as well as amplifying and honing the important work of its member foundations in boosting local grassroots organisations working to:

preserve, protect and. regenerate biodiverse ecosystems AND prevent, slow down and adapt to climate change.

We also exchanged capacity-building know-how, experiences and knowledge related to common areas such as fundraising, community engagement and awareness-raising of environmental issues. Each director gave a Spotlight Presentation to the group, highlighting a diverse range of impactful projects from the regenerative agriculture training programme at Apricot Centre in Devon, to a multifaceted turtle conservation programme in the Cyclades, to the orchestra of components needed to deliver change in the Leuser Ecosystem(Indonesia).

Acknowledging the pressure that working from home and isolated may affect the local directors and the CC team in general, we also had a personal and working development session with certified life coach Sandra Císcar. She shared some very useful tips for de-stressing and working more efficiently.

 

The IbizaPreservation team was an outstanding host and organised a series of activities centred around the projects that they support on the island, which included a visit to a local, organic beekeeping farm, part of the Ibiza Produce initiative; an informative talk regarding boating practices in the island and their effect on Posidonia meadows by One Planet One Life; a guided tour around the historic old town of Ibiza by Walking Ibiza; and a mouth-watering dinner at Reart Restaurant, owned by chef David Reartes and who aims to create the first zero-waste restaurant in Ibiza.

Last but not least, we would like to highlight the extraordinary work by Gabrielle Gambina from Ibiza Produce for supplying the team with the most delicious, KM-0, seasonal foods  during the entirety of our stay! Highlights included rigatoni pasta with cavolo nero pesto (almonds, ibiza olive oil), black olive tapenade and spelt ‘arroz meloso’ with mushrooms & local cheese.