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
Beyond Passion: Four Young Africans Redefining Conservation Leadership
For Maissa Louhichi, conservation begins by translating marine science into biodiversity policy in Tunisia. Jody Frank Brown is helping reshape climate governance across South Africa's Western Cape. In Benin, Dramani Ramdan is making the case for protecting one of the planet's most overlooked kingdoms of life, fungi. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, Esther Chibueyin Fagbo is bringing together government, businesses, financial institutions, civil society, and informal waste workers to transform how a nation tackles plastic pollution.
At first glance, their work could not be more different.
Yet these four young leaders are united by a common purpose. They represent a generation proving that conservation is no longer defined solely by fieldwork or scientific discovery. It increasingly depends on people who can influence policy, build partnerships, communicate across sectors, and lead change in complex systems.
That is precisely why World Youth Skills Day matters.
Across Africa, young people are stepping into leadership at a time when the continent faces unprecedented environmental challenges, from biodiversity loss and climate change to pollution and ecosystem…
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
