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I am Crystal DiMiceli and welcome to the Forces for Nature Show. Do you find yourself overwhelmed with all the doom and gloom you hear of these days? Do you feel like you as just one person, can’t really make a difference? Forces for nature cuts through that negativity. In each episode, I interview someone who is working to make the world more sustainable and humane. Join me in learning from them and get empowered to take action so that you too can become a force for nature.

Welcome to the last episode of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders program series!

This season of Forces for Nature has been so much fun for me. I hope for you too! Protecting wildlife is such a passion of mine and to know that people like the rockstars I spoke with this season are out there doing such amazing things gives me so much hope. 

When I sat down to think of how I wanted to wrap things up for the season, I wondered about the common threads that ran through the episodes. The guests were from all over the world- from the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem… to coastal Belize… to Honduras… to Kenya… to the halls where policy gets shaped. They all do such different work within such different cultures. And, yet, they hit on a lot of the same points in what they shared with us. 

So in this final episode, I want to share a few lessons that showed up again and again across these conversations. Lessons you can apply whether you are running a nonprofit, working in the field, teaching, advocating, volunteering, or just trying to be a responsible neighbor on this planet.

Lesson 1: Listen first. Trust is needed before solutions.

One of the most consistent threads this season was almost disarmingly simple:

If you want conservation to work, you have to listen.

Kate—working in Jackson Hole—put it plainly: start by listening, not lecturing. People know their landscapes and livelihoods, and if you arrive with all the answers, trust evaporates fast. This is especially true when you need to work, like she does, with overlapping jurisdictions and stakeholders with different perspectives.

Gaby, working in marine conservation, echoed it with equal clarity: listen to all perspectives before you form an opinion—because things are often not as they look from the outside. She describes her work as years of involving the community “at every step.” 

And Hugo described what that listening looks like on the ground in communities living with human–wildlife conflict: you show up, you let people be angry, you give them someone to talk to, and only then do you work together on solutions.

Here is the takeaway I want to land:
Listening is how trust starts. It is how you find the real problem. And it is how you avoid building solutions that look great on paper… and fail in real life.

Lesson 2: Durability comes from local ownership

Another theme was even bigger:

Conservation that lasts is owned locally.

Ali talked about how the old pattern of relying on outsiders to conserve an area or species can often be discontinuous and fragile. What Ali built is not a one-off project. It is a local management system — with targets, rules, accountability — all run by the people who live with the wildlife every day.

Jamal described a project where the community is not a box to check—it is the backbone. About 65% of their research team comes from the local community, and local knowledge helped define where manatees are and what pressures they face.

Gaby talked about how local ownership is not getting buy-in for your idea. It is building something that makes sense to the people living it, including the economic and cultural constraints they cannot simply step away from. The top-down regulations made the Miskito communities’ livelihood illegal overnight. But, the “alternative livelihoods” presented to them didn’t work. The fishers want to fish. So Gaby has been working with the communities to find a solution that works for everyone.

When Shivani started Ewaso Lions, she said she had no plan, no vision — just a deep sense of responsibility to understand what was happening with lions in northern Kenya. The vision became clear as she worked with her team — and it became collective. 

So, what does this look like for you? Don’t think of designing “for” people; design “with” people.
Even in your own town, your own watershed, your own neighborhood—durable conservation is co-created.

Lesson 3: Small wins are not small

If you have ever felt overwhelmed by the scale of biodiversity loss or climate change, you are not alone. And one of the most practical, sanity-saving lessons from this season is:

Big change is built from small wins.

Bently says that highlighting the wins — even small wins — is important to fight misinformation and fatigue. Showing action and progress helps people see it is not all doom and gloom even in a “one step forward, two steps back” moment. 

Kaitlyn’s most emotional through-line is basically the “starfish” lesson: you might not solve wildlife trafficking broadly, but changing one animal’s life is still meaningful — and it is what sustains people in this work.

And from a fundraising point of view, David mentioned how the big gifts usually come after lots of small steps — showing up, following up, learning what a supporter values, perhaps lots of small gifts at first, and building trust over time.

So if you are tired, or cynical, or burned out: you do not need a grand gesture.
You need a next step you can actually take—and then another.

Lesson 4: Storytelling is not fluff. 

Another thread that kept coming up was messaging.

Jamal said it outright: the most important tool in conservation is “a listening ear and a story.”

Rhett talked about how easy it is for narratives to default to despair and how that is causing people to disengage- from the news, from taking action. It is important to frame from a solutions standpoint, to show what is working, and to help people feel agency instead of paralysis by breaking problems into tangible, visible actions. He also reminded us that storytelling is not just about awareness and numbers of likes. It is about routing the right information to the right people, not necessarily allllll the people. 

And Rhett was not the only one who challenged the idea that storytelling is just about awareness. Justin and Alex from Running Wild Media pulled back the curtain on something I think more of us should copy: they start with the impact they want — the change they want to see — and then they build the story backward from that. That decision shapes everything: who the audience is, which characters they follow, and even what success looks like.

So here is the lesson: awareness is not impact. Facts matter — but storytelling is how you deliver those facts in a way that people feel connected to them and can use for the next step. 

Lesson 5: Coexistence is engineered in the details

Hugo lays out a progression: show up → build trust → reduce losses (this could be in livestock, crops, life)→ create opportunity → this starts to shift conflict towards tolerance → only then can coexistence become possible. He is clear that coexistence is the hardest stage and you do not jump to it first.

Kate defines her organization’s coexistence work in concrete actions like removing old barbed-wire fences blocking migration corridors and restoring habitat. This allows for the ecosystems to support the wildlife without pushing it into people’s backyards. Her work is also about educating visitors and new residents on the best ways to live among wildlife to avoid conflict in the first place.

Shivani is clear that coexistence is not new in Samburu; it is generational. The job is supporting communities to keep coexisting under new pressures like shrinking habitat, new development, new threats. She also redirects existing skills, like the warriors’ elite tracking abilities, to protect and not to kill, lions. And yes — it also looks like pausing mid-interview because there is a snake nearby, and calmly making sure it is not venomous. That is coexistence in real time.

Season lesson: Coexistence is not a belief. It is a set of systems that prevent predictable conflict and bring benefit to all parties involved.

Lesson 6: The “unsexy” stuff matters

Shivani made this one painfully clear. Conservation is not cheap. People need salaries. People need insurance. Teams need fuel and food and emergency support. Those are not extras and yet they are often the hardest things to fund.

David framed fundraising the way conservation actually works: as relationship-building. You listen, you learn what someone values, you show progress, and you invite them to be part of the work they can genuinely sustain. Because “overhead” is not overhead — it is the backbone.

Kaitlyn put words to something I had to admit I do myself: we will fund a dramatic rescue, but we do not always fund what comes after. The daily reality — food, veterinary care, enrichment, staff salaries — is harder to raise money for because it is not flashy. But she reminded us that the true need is often in the least glamorous parts of the work. The rescue is the headline. The follow-through is the mission.

And Kate talked about the “not glamorous,” but “absolutely essential behind-the-scenes work. She said conservation needs people who can understand budgets, work with boards, raise funds, coordinate partners, and keep logistics on track. Because without those skills, the sexy projects stall out. 

This is a message, plainly:

The work people celebrate depends on the work people overlook.

Lesson 7: Civic participation is also a conservation tool

And last but not least. This isn’t necessarily a lesson that was brought up again and again but it’s one that I want to remind you all is very important. We often need systems change to make headway on issues. And to make that change, we need to affect policy.

Bentley described how you can often get surprising access to local/state officials if you request meetings, show up at town halls/coffee hours, and build recognition. He says the combination that can be “game changing” is: relationship + personal story + clear ask.

And, this could feel pointless in the hyper-polarized world we live in today. But Bentley suggested using “kitchen table issues” to communicate across ideology. He talks about framing the environment around everyday needs people already care about: like high energy costs, kids thriving, health scares, asthma with wildfire smoke, and clean water. That is his bridge to reach people who do not label themselves environmentalists.

The bottom line: We need to find ways to connect across the aisle and make officials very well aware that we are paying attention and want change.

————

And to the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders community: this season has been a reminder that leadership is not a title. It is a practice—showing up, listening, building trust and relationships, and staying in the work long enough for it to take root. This season did not pretend the work is easy. It showed what makes it durable.

And Thank you for being here. Thank you for caring about the wild, wherever you live. And if an episode from this season stuck with you, share it with one person who would genuinely appreciate it—because the fastest way for good work to grow is for it to travel by trust.

I will see you next season.

Don’t forget to go to forces for nature.com and sign up to receive emailed show notes, action tips, and a free checklist to help you start taking practical actions today. Do you know someone else who would enjoy this episode? I would be so grateful if you would share it with them. Hit me up on Instagram and Facebook at Becoming Forces for Nature, and let me know what actions you have been taking. Adopting just one habit could be a game changer because imagine if a million people also adopted that. What difference for the world are you going to make today?