Small grants can empower the next generation of conservationists

Founder s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Paul Barnes, who leads the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE of Existence program, has spent the past few years listening to the frustrations of early-career conservationists.

The stories are rarely about fieldwork itself. They’re about making rent, juggling unstable contracts, harassment in remote sites, and the steady grind of burnout. After four workshops held across several regions, he returned to an inbox with 1,700 applicants for roughly 10 fellowship slots.

It’s a familiar ratio across the sector. Demand is soaring, while funding pipelines sputter. In a commentary for Mongabay, Barnes argues that conservation is entering an “opportunity bottleneck.” The talent exists. So do viable projects, from species recovery to community-based monitoring.

What is missing is the capacity to absorb these people and ideas into workable, durable careers. The larger funding world, dependent on slow disbursements and heavy reporting requirements, has not adjusted. And recent pauses in major government aid programs have revealed just how fragile big pipelines can be. Small grants, he writes, are proving unexpectedly resilient.

They are quick to deploy, accessible to emerging organizations, and flexible enough to respond to local realities. Evidence from long-running funds supports the claim: modest sums have helped establish protected areas, advance species recovery, and strengthen locally led conservation in ways that larger donors often struggle to achieve.

They act as financial “capillaries,” keeping local systems functioning when larger arteries clog. Yet the small-grants model needs...This article was originally published on Mongabay