Youth Leadership Program
Since the 1960s, AWF has worked to foster the best and brightest minds to lead conservation in Africa. We collaborate with like-minded partners to train future conservationists and change agents, engage young people in conservation learning and advocacy, and mobilize youth to demand meaningful conservation action. All these efforts help create new generations of young people using their talent and creativity to protect Africa’s wildlife and essential ecosystems.
Latest News
"It Starts With Me” - How Youth in Rwanda Are Restoring Forests and Rebuilding Climate Resilience
Volcanoes National Park, where endangered mountain gorillas roam through dense forests of bamboo, climate restoration is taking root not only in the soil, but in the people who call this landscape home.
For Hitimana Fideli, a youth volunteer from Kinigi Sector in Musanze District, environmental conservation was once something distant—a responsibility for experts, institutions, or people far away from his village. Today, after four years of participating in bamboo restoration activities around Volcanoes National Park, he sees it differently.
“I used to believe that climate protection wasn’t my responsibility. However, after training on the importance of the park, I came to realize that everything that needs to be done starts with me right here in Kinigi, without looking elsewhere.”
That realization has transformed Fideli from a local caretaker into a committed environmental steward and Community Eco-Guard, helping restore one of Rwanda’s most important ecosystems through the planting and nurturing of indigenous African alpine bamboo (Yushania alpina).
His story reflects a growing movement across Rwanda, where local communities, especially youth,…
How We Engage Youth
The AWF-Wall Youth Leadership Program
The AWF-Wall Youth Leadership Program offers nine-month fellowships along two tracks: international environmental policy and conservation management. Participants receive leadership training, professional opportunities, and intense mentorship and coaching support as they develop problem-solving skills through hands-on experience.
>>Learn more about the fellowships
Youth-Led Enterprises
We support young people to boost their income through enterprises that reduce pressure on biodiversity and increase climate change resilience. This includes a training curriculum with modules on business principles and ethics, business proposals, marketing, recordkeeping, financial management, and more.
>>Learn more about youth enterprise initiatives in Zimbabwe
Internships
We partner with the Africa Leadership University (ALU) to offer three-month internships for students to work with AWF programs at either our Nairobi headquarters or in our country offices. The internships allow students to make tangible contributions to conservation with the experience contributing to their required research capstone.
Kenyan Youth Biodiversity Network Co-Founder Kevin Lunzalu addresses youth participants at the 15th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022
Global Youth Biodiversity Network - Africa
We support the African chapter of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, or GYBN, by convening workshops and conferences that amplify African youth voices in biodiversity policy agendas.
Since 2018, we have facilitated workshops for country representatives of the GYBN, which is the official youth delegation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (or CBD, an international body of the United Nations that shapes global commitments to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and to fairly and equitably share the benefits of biological life), to help these young leaders prepare for deliberations.
We also co-convene the African Youth Summit on Biodiversity, which is a forum for young people from across the continent to highlight their priorities and organize concrete, youth-led action.
>>Learn about how young Africans are rallying for biodiversity
