Animated

Half of the year is gone. Which is insane.

Work at the moment is an imbalance between the painful shepherding of processes, compliance and decisions, and the more enjoyable external facing work that actually involves the words wildlife and conservation. The charity sector is so hammered in terms of compliance (which can either be over-egged by an organisation’s interpretation, or dealt with pragmatically) that we spend much of our time ensuring that auditors will have a paper trail. The pressure on this stuff has increased gradually over the years but usually it’s offset enough by travel, face to face interactions, field visits, external meetings, etc. I do wonder whether the conservation NGO sector is in a bit of a crisis mode because of how drastically our work has shifted. If it achieves anything, this experience needs to disrupt the model of conservation organisations who rely far too much on international travel to implement work, and staff projects more fully in the countries in which the work is taking place. This is a total no-brainer.

Thank goodness for Alfredo, an intern helping us with biomonitoring work in Chimanimani, Mozambique. He’s a delight to deal with and always lifts my mood.

Love Cambridge describes itself as a series of events designed to ‘animate and entertain’ the city. I’m definitely in need of some animation so I shall look into it more.