Shaping a sustainable future with 48 new project leaders in 2025

It’s no secret that our world needs urgent change.

And in our 2025 project leader cohort, we’re inspired to see people innovate and create positive change in their communities and countries and across the conservation sector. With 70 projects active in 39 different countries and led by 73 project leaders, there is a network of dedicated people committed to shaping a sustainable future.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reported in 2019 that the only way to achieve global development goals was through transformative change. This year, more than 100 experts from 42 countries prepared the IPBES Transformative Change Assessment, a report that explains what transformative change is, how it occurs and how we can move towards achieving global development goals while preserving nature.

Experts reported that the amount of funding flowing into conservation efforts is very low relative to the actual financial dependence of global GDP on nature. Spending on biodiversity conservation is about 0.25% of global GDP, and yet our reliance on nature amounts to $58-trillion. Funding the people and projects that support biodiversity, and therefore our own quality of life and future on this planet, has always been critical. Its urgency is now recognised, and it should be a priority.

We need to understand that where spending on biodiversity conservation is prioritised, people benefit. In Cameroon, project leader Wongibe Poupezo Dieudonne is working to reduce hammerhead shark bycatch by 20%. That’s a win for wildlife; but more fundamentally, it’s a critical necessity for coastal Cameroonians for whom fishing is a primary livelihood that brings economic stability and food security. When we fund a project that identifies and maps hammerhead bycatch hotspots, we fund both the conservation of a threatened animal and the security of coastal livelihoods for people.

The IPBES report also calls for transformation that not only shifts us away from world views and structures that have been harmful to biodiversity, but actively recognises and strengthens the structures, practices and views ‘that are aligned with generating a just and sustainable world, such as those of many Indigenous Peoples and local communities’.

For Boaz Kaunda-Arara, calling upon the local ecological knowledge of communities on the Kenyan coast is central to his search for information about rhino rays, manta and devil rays and hammerhead sharks. The insights of local community members and fishers will help Boaz to characterise the socio-economics (fisheries, values and uses), ecology (critical habitats, spawning seasons and aggregations) and governance of these threatened sharks and rays.

Portrait illustrations by Sam Kerr

A further recommendation from the IPBES is that conservation should involve sustainable stewardship, in particular by local communities and Indigenous Peoples. Change becomes transformative when it is ‘inclusive, well resourced, focused on places of high value to nature and people, and when the rights of Indigenous Peoples are recognised’.

Alifa Haque believes that creating marine protected areas that are built on social fairness and community involvement and that promote sustainable use is key. In Bangladesh, fishing communities often bear the cost of regulations without being included in decision-making, which leads to conflicts and compliance issues. According to Alifa, creating marine protected areas ‘should incorporate participatory governance and ability to mainstream traditional knowledge. Such an approach fosters social fairness, involves local populations and ensures sustainable resource use.’ She continues, ‘By integrating science with human rights principles, we can address conservation challenges effectively and create marine protected areas that are ecologically robust and socially just.’

Transformation needs to include our relationship to nature. Another key finding was that our dominant societal views and values, on a global scale, need to prioritise the connections between humans and nature. This involves changing narratives and creating transformative learning opportunities. While coastal communities in Cameroon often hold deep cultural ties to sharks and rays, Cyndi Karel Ngah believes that it is essential to make education culturally relevant in the country and to tackle the generally low awareness of the conservation status of the 28 ray and 17 shark species in Cameroon’s waters.

It is heartening to understand that there is a community of people across the planet who care enough to act on the three key causes of biodiversity loss as identified by the IPBES report: disconnection from, and dominion over, nature and other peoples; inequality of power and wealth; and prioritising short-term gains. And there are serious wins to be gained when we act to reverse biodiversity loss. According to the report’s findings, that’s $10-trillion in business opportunity value, and 395 million jobs globally by 2030. If it seems impossible to believe that change is possible, the scale and scope of this year’s projects offer some inspiration to the contrary.

Meet our 2025 Keystone Grant project leaders here, and Small Grant project leaders here.