Why this article has no author's name on it, and what that has to do with burnout, funding, and the kind of organisations that actually change anything. You'll notice there's no single name at the top of this piece. That's deliberate, and by the end we hope it will make complete sense. What follows is an argument that the way we usually do leadership (finding one impressive person, putting them out front, telling the world "they did this") and compensating them generously for

Participants from the 2024 'Transforming the Fenceline' course sharing their change projects at the Community Engagement Practitioner conference, October 2024. In the conservation sector, as with many other social and environmental sectors, the people who do the most navigating and hold the greatest knowledge tend to be the least recognised. Community Engagement Practitioners (CEPs) work at the physical fenceline between protected areas and the communities that live alongside

Introduction Evaluating work that unfolds within complex programmes and systems, especially those involving multiple stakeholders with varying interests, and diverse contexts, inevitably involves uncertainty. Programmes are often inspired by different ideas, pursue several objectives, and are shaped by layered decision making processes. Change may occur simultaneously across different levels, or so rapidly, that it becomes difficult to see clearly what matters most. In such e

We are all residing in, or perhaps between, countries which are either oppressing other countries, or their own people - or in ones which are being oppressed by others. One of the countries realife is based in, the UK, is complicit in ongoing genocide, and now a further illegal war on top of its leading and contribution to many past and present atrocities. In how we show up for work in justice focused organisations, the joy feels particularly far away. The realife team has wa

What is the Learning Landscapes approach? “This wasn’t learning for its own sake - it was survival work, care work, movement work. It was learning to stay in dignity and action, rooted in the urgencies that shape our daily lives” – Jane Burt, founding member of realife Learning At its heart, the Learning Landscapes approach recognises that learning should begin with the real experiences of injustice that people live through every day. It acknowledges that all knowledge system