The University of Florida (UF) Amazon Conservation Leadership Initiative (ACLI) works to build capacity for science and conservation in the Andes-Amazon region.  The program has complementary goals of training individuals at UF, and building in-country capacity.  It is supported by a generous grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The geographic scope of the program includes the nine Amazon Basin countries of French Guyana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.  The program seeks to strengthen regional conservation by enhancing the leadership capacity and effectiveness of regional NGOs, government agencies, and university programs to engage critical conservation issues and improve conservation practice.

The program trains emerging regional conservation leaders at the University of Florida, and supports the creation and consolidation of strong graduate training programs at three regional universities.

Scholarships to Master’s or Doctoral programs at UF for residents of the nine Amazon Basin countries.  Grantees will complete the interdisciplinary Tropical Conservation and Development concentration, and may enroll in any of the academic departments affiliated with the Tropical Conservation and Development Program.  Scholarships begin in August, with applications due the first Monday of the previous February.

Four to nine month visiting fellowships at UF for practicing conservationists, researchers, professors or Ph.D. students who are residents of Amazon Basin countries. Fellowships may start at any time, with applications due the second Monday of March (in exceptional circumstances applications at other times may be accepted, but will have much less chance of approval).  Visiting fellows will develop individualized programs of study and/or research, which may include UF classes, field courses, and use of the UF library’s Latin American Collection.  We are working in partnership with the Federal University of Acre, Brazil, the Federal University of Mato Grosso, Brazil, and the National University of the Peruvian Amazon to create and consolidate strong graduate training programs that produce useful applied research to address local and regional conservation problems, and train local conservation managers.  Post-doctoral visiting professors are in place at UFAC and UFMT, and faculty exchange visits are taking place in both directions.

UF’s Amazon Conservation Leadership Initiative is administered by the Tropical Conservation and Development Program and the School of Forest Resources and Conservation. Expected outcomes of this program are:

• Well-trained leaders, prepared to pro-actively engage the challenges of advancing the science, culture, and practice of conservation in the Andes-Amazon region.
• Strengthened in-country institutional capacity, including conservation education and research programs at regional universities, designed for local training of the next generation of conservation scientists and practitioners.
• Added expertise and research potential to address priority conservation problems in collaboration with the organizations and programs supported by the Moore Foundation’s Andes-Amazon Initiative.

For further information, please see http://www.latam.ufl.edu/tcd, or contact Robert Buschbacher, ACLI Program Manager.