Claudio Padua, Institute for Ecological Research

Dr. Claudio Padua is cofounder, with his wife Suzana, of the Institute for Ecological Research (IPE), which works on conservation projects throughout Brazil.

Here we are at the end of one of the most exciting weeks of my life. After years of theorizing and building relationships with colleagues with the same vision but very different cultures, we have created the Wildlife Trust Alliance. Finally, strong-minded conservationists passionately committed to local community-based conservation have both the independence to build our own unique programs and the mutual support that comes from being part of an international movement.

To put the icing on the cake, we have also accomplished an important early milestone: Alliance members spoke with one voice to draw attention to a critical issue in conservation. The press has taken notice, too: Several of us were on national Indian television today talking about both the formation of the Wildlife Trust Alliance and our first declaration highlighting the wildlife trade and the problems it creates in our countries.

Our last session was this morning. We started out by taking care of some business, voting on a number of individuals and institutions to invite into the Alliance and discussing the creation of an advisory council and what characteristics we would seek in a group of advisors.

We then came to the most important part of the discussion: What are the products we will produce as a group? We have to balance our excitement at being part of a collaborative with awareness that we need enough time to accomplish our work on the ground at home. Suzana led another ZOPP exercise, in which everyone wrote down their ideas for products. During a tea break, she organized the dozens of cards, and when we sat down together again, we saw that our suggestions fell primarily into four categories: publications, capacity building, fundraising, and providing policy-relevant scientific information to decision-makers. We were all issued stickers to place on our top five ideas. Lo and behold, our priorities were identified!

Over the next six months, Mary Pearl and I, as coordinators of the Alliance, will be working with our colleagues to make specific plans to achieve these priorities. When the Alliance meets next, in July, we will go over these plans to move to action. We will also assess how well we have implemented the agenda we proposed in our declaration, and reassess the deleterious effects of the wildlife trade.

Dear readers, it has been a pleasure to share this important week with you. This afternoon I head off with Sukumar and a team of peer evaluators to observe his research program in the field, at Mudumalai National Park. I can hardly wait to see my first wild elephant ... and then next week, Suzana and I return to our conservation work in Brazil with renewed commitment and energy.