Cara Blackburn
Social Media Officer / Writer, Born Free / Ubuntu Magazine
- Member directory
- United Kingdom
Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group (MFG), a conservation organisation operating in Toamasina, Madagascar and employing over 100 Malagasy staff. My task is focus on organising and conducting community workshops and capacity building within MFG’s target areas in Madagascar, conducting field and laboratory research using contemporary methods, techniques, and materials, in collaboration with international collaborators, coordinating community-led management of Asian toads (a pest species in Madagascar), coordinating and conducting data collection via community surveys and citizen science to quantify socio-economic impacts of Asian toads in Madagascar, Leading teams of volunteers to conduct field research and community outreach and Managing field data and drafting reports.
My background is mainly in species conservation, education and capacity exchange. I researched mother-young interactions in gorillas and chimpanzees, in captivity and the wild. After that, I worked for three years in Indonesia, where I developed and implemented youth ambassador and community engagement programmes on local and regional scales. I co-founded WildHub, a community of nature conservation professionals, in 2020 and work as their Community Lead. I am furthermore on the Advisory Board of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent where I obtained my PhD on capacity development for conservation in 2022.
I'm a biodiversity consultant working mainly in the corporate space. I work with large companies to help them figure out their nature-related impacts, dependancies, risks and opportunities, then use this information to create biodiversity strategies.
I am the founder of Ubuntu Magazine. We share personal stories from the frontlines of conservation globally.
I have a background as a Applied Biologist and have been traveling the African continent since September '22 in a Land Rover Defender. Alongside watching wildlife and learning more about new countries and cultures, we (my partner and I) visit projects for Ubuntu Magazine.