What Happens When Conservation Professionals Finally Have Space to Be Honest

The room was silent, the emotion palpable. A hand placed on the shoulder of a Fellow in the audience in solidarity and comfort. Hands wiping tears from faces. A pause from the Fellow presenting, getting choked up. Two conservation professionals from opposite sides of the Coral Triangle linked by mirrored experiences; the fight to protect a marine protected area from corporate greed - one succeeded, the other did not. But both carry the same scars that they had never shared before, and all of us connected with their grief and bone-crushing effort to try and make a change for the Ocean.

Fellow support during a tough discussion

In July 2025, we brought 28 conservation professionals from across Asia together for a 6-day professional development workshop. Our 2023 workshop introduced professional skills softly, one day out of four others focused on technical skills. The incredible feedback from that one day led us to flip the workshop format to focus mostly core professional skills, with specific technical skills supplementing it. This 2025 workshop was a test run of this format.

Our aim was to start building some of the core professional skills we felt were lacking in the sector, along with some of the broad technical skills this work requires. In essence, we were trying to create the training we wished our past-selves never got. Training that is being increasingly recognised as crucial to conservation. We had no idea how people would respond - including the other trainers (!), if some of the topics we covered would be seen as “woo-woo”, but we knew from our own networks that conservation professionals were struggling and we knew we had learnt so much from our own challenges that we had to try.

Andrew leading a discussion about working at the edges of our comfort zones

"I have never spoke about my experience in public before. I felt safe because Andrew and Sam set the setting - they were being honest and vulnerable and that made me let my guard down too." - 2025 Fellow

“I have never been in a workshop where personal emotive issues were explored to such a degree. Wasn't sure how I would react to it, but the fact that I really related to it and it could potentially help me tackle these issues was a pleasant surprise for me.” - 2025 Fellow

From the first day, we were blown away by the support the Fellows showed each other. Each person gave a 5 minute run down of their work to tremendous applause and often insightful questions. Some already knew each other; others knew of each other; and some were completely new to the space. The intense feeling of connection and camaraderie that filled the room made us realise that people were coming into the workshop having lived on the other end of the spectrum - isolation.

BCC Fellows reading each others profiles

"I think I came into this workshop feeling like it was me against the world, like I was alone in this fight. Coming here, I feel so energised and grateful to be part of this community... I realised in the end, I am not alone.” - 2025 Fellow

"I was surprised and appreciated how quickly everyone felt they were able to be vulnerable and honest." - 2025 Fellow

Communications working group discussions

We had hoped that we could shift some perspectives and thinking in the Fellows, but we experienced our own shifts too. First, that taking the time to work on these skills was something people hadn’t thought about much, but experiencing it brought its importance to the surface and the Fellows really championed the continuation of this work. Secondly, we realised that peer-to-peer support was much more important than we had thought. We knew it was important, but for many of the Fellows, it was the absolute highlight of the week.

"I now have support, people that have gone through what I went through before. Shared experiences.” - 2025 Fellow

"I feel so lucky to be in this work where we can feel brought to tears by our work, we can talk about burnout and tough times so openly and connect with each other through tears and through laughter." - 2025 Fellow

Playing "Pilaut" - a fisher stakeholder engagement game created by some of the Fellows

"I was most surprised by the trust we share in only 6 days! I feel emotionally connected. I feel seen, heard, and valued." - 2025 Fellow

"I have never felt comfortable in the shark and ray research space but seeing so many people with similar experiences and that looked at me when I talked - I loved it." - 2025 Fellow

Sam leading discussions about burnout

Throughout the week, we could see that people were resonating with the workshop. The facilitators ran their sessions giving more practical tools, tips and frameworks for thinking about the human dimensions of conservation, storytelling and communications for impact, tagging and telemetry and data visualisation. But we wanted to know if this, coupled with our sessions on professional skills, really made a difference for our Fellows and their work. We wanted honest feedback so our end of workshop survey was anonymous. The feedback we got was constructive, and powerful.

"I finally understand the purpose of strategy and how I need to apply it in all aspects of my professional and personal life." - 2025 Fellow

"[I was surprised by] how much my mindset has shifted from the start, being quite negative and hard on myself to feeling empowered in my own capacity, confident and excited for the future" - 2025 Fellow

"I realised I need to also think about myself and the "sustainability" of my career in addition to just focusing on "saving the ocean". - 2025 Fellow

More than one Fellow came up to us on the final day to make us promise not to stop doing this work (don’t worry, we pinky promise), and we’ll be forever grateful to this cohort for helping to shape the future of BCC. We’re taking on their constructive feedback for future workshops, such as;

• protecting time for discussions and working group support,

• cover a tighter curriculum so the content is not as overwhelming,

• Slow down delivery so Fellows less fluent in English have more time to process,

• continue to provide technical skill training in addition to the professional skills.

Celebrations on the final day of the workshop

Taking advantage of having funders in the room: a funding roundtable discussion

We may have started in the shark and ray research and conservation space, but this is just the start. Conservation is multi-disciplinary and complex. We want to provide these opportunities to reach marine conservation professionals working across different marine systems and species across Asia. While our next workshop will again focus on those working with sharks and rays (see ), we will be looking to expand beyond this niche in the future. Meanwhile, this cohort has truly cemented our passion and purpose for this work, and proven that just six days together can reignite purpose, create community, and equip talented individuals to make an even bigger difference for our oceans.

Certificates were awarded to all Fellows at the end of the workshop

Special thanks to Synchronicity Earth and Save Our Seas Foundation for funding this workshop and for peeling back the curtain on the conservation funding web. We extend our immense gratitude to LAMAVE for their on-the-ground support for the workshop logistics and showing us their project sites, and very importantly, organising a talented barista to come fuel our final few days 😆.