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
World Teachers’ Day 2026: Patrick Kiminza Nurturing a Young Generation of Conservationists in Tsavo, Kenya
Through the Young Conservation Heroes project, African Wildlife Foundation and Wildlife Clubs of Kenya are equipping educational leadership and Wildlife Club Patrons with the skills, resources, and opportunities to make conservation education practical. This World Teachers’ Day story highlights how investing in educators can create meaningful opportunities for learners to explore, experience, and act for conservation.
For Patrick Kiminza, education extends beyond teaching the stipulated curriculum in the classroom. He sees it as an opportunity to help learners understand the natural world around them while building knowledge, skills, and confidence to act for conservation.
As a teacher and Wildlife Club Patron at Ngwata Comprehensive in Makueni County, Kenya, Patrick uses practical lessons and experiences to help learners understand connections between people, wildlife, and natural resources, while creating opportunities for them to participate in conservation. This connection is extremely important since the school is located near Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks, which makes nature conservation relevant to students’ everyday lives.
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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
