Sanaz

4 months ago

I found both articles very relevant to the PMWC principles. The “Failure in Conservation Projects” piece resonated with me because, in my experience, conservation teams often hesitate to document or share failures. This makes it hard for others to learn and avoid repeating mistakes, especially when projects fail to focus on real impact. Sharing these lessons could strengthen future initiatives. The “Optimal Time to Act” article reminded me of the Do Something principle. It’s a fine balance between researching enough to make informed decisions and starting action before opportunities are lost, like missing peak migration seasons or critical breeding periods. In my work with nature-based tourism and birdwatching projects, waiting too long for “perfect” conditions can mean losing the chance to influence visitor behavior or protect species effectively.

Stanley Mbuagbaw

3 months ago

From the article, Its a general tendency expecially in donor funded schemes to minimise reporting about failures. As the article clearly states, its high time donors give room for implementing Conservation NGOs to report on successes and failures. It is common practice today to mention in some reporting lines on aspects related to Lessons learned. From this lens , project team can expantiate on what worked well that can be replicated and what was not successful , to do other wise or avoid in the future. In strict program report some failures can be mentioned but how to transform this on public platforms and the scientifc community through publications is where much work is needed an a mindset for that be proposed to build accountability and knowledge sharing 

Sally Murugi Kahoro

2 months ago

The first article resonated in terms of ' promoting learning from failure ' makes it easier knowing this happens all over and we should be accepting of that fact, learn from it and move on.

The second part caught my eye and got me appreciative of the fact that we can now calculate optimal time to act.

John Hartshorn

2 months ago

"interactions between stakeholders and project actions, and not external factors like politics, was the largest cause of project failures" - this suggests that project plans were not fully developed to ensure good communication and buy-in from stakeholders, and perhaps did not have mitigations in place for when such interactions arose that would ultimately lead to project failures.

Natalie Ellis

about 1 month ago

I found the failure in conservation projects article fascinating as to why the failures are not often analysed because wouldn't this help future conservation of the area if the groups coming in know where the previous groups have failed and allow them to plan ways round that.  The second article is The Do something principle but it is a tricky balance to find whether to start the project and risk loosing money or waiting for the perfect conditions which with the way climate change is going may never happen. 

Brenda Muriithi

19 days ago

Progress in conservation demands both humility to admit failure and courage to act before conditions worsen. Together, these ideas challenge us to shift from a culture of caution to one of honest reflection and timely, purposeful action.