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.
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Youth Lead the Way in Restoring Rwanda’s Parks and Improving Livelihoods
AWF and the EU trained 30 young Rwandan leaders in biodiversity, climate adaptation, and sustainable livelihoods, empowering them to drive park restoration efforts.
Last week in Musanze, Rwanda, 30 young conservation leaders representing 5 youth-led organizations came together for an intensive four-day training designed to equip them with the skills to protect nature while creating sustainable livelihoods. The workshop, funded by the European Union as part of the African Wildlife Foundation’s Volcanoes National Park Landscape Conservation and Development Program, offered a unique blend of classroom learning, field visits, and hands-on project design.
For four days, participants explored how biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and nature-based solutions can work hand in hand to restore landscapes around Volcanoes National Park while delivering benefits to livelihoods. They learned practical approaches such as terracing, composting, and rainwater harvesting in the field, while also learning how to design community-based projects and write strong grant proposals that can attract donor funding.
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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
