BIODIVERSITY MAINSTREAMING SUCCESS

Lessons Learnt from the African Leadership Group

Monipher Musasa

Environmental Affairs Department, Malawi

University of Cambridge Mphil in Conservation Leadership

Leadership in Biodiversity Mainstreaming

• Cooperation, communication and leadership is important for effective mainstreaming

LESSONS LEARNT FROM ALG

Shared effort, shared vision

A type of leadership where relationships other than those built from hierarchy can be nurtured and still constitute leadership

Lessons Learnt

• Social learning enhances common knowledge, awareness and skills

• Learning and leadership groups at country level

Lessons Learnt

• Tools and guidance produced influence processes at international level

• Ability to relate biodiversity-development linkages to a range of stakeholders

Lessons Learnt…..

windows of opportunity provide avenues for making business cases for biodiversity

Knowing when to connect and mobilize stakeholders, creating the right links at the right time around the right issues is important for conservation

Lessons Learnt…..

• Making the case for mainstreaming requires information in different forms depending on the target audience

• Continuous stakeholder engagement to understand sources of influence

• Lack of active communication amongst members

• Leadership within ALG

“The key to successful leadership is influence…

not authority”....Kenneth H. Blanchard