Drive up through Rwanda's lovely mountain scenery to Musanze for Rwanda’s annual celebration of conservation and the benefits it brings to Rwandans - Kwita Izina. Join celebrities from around the world for the naming ceremony of baby gorillas in the stunning Volcanoes National Park. Wrap up the day with a glamorous Gala dinner with guests and colleagues. This event is strictly by invitation from the Rwandan Government. To attend, please indicate your interest here to receive an official invitation

All day registration

Hermosa Life Tours and Travel is an accredited youth-led social enterprise that provides business and leisure travellers with expert travel advice and is hosting a debate series that range from current wildlife and conservation policies and programs and the importance of environmental conservation in Rwanda..Read more...

Doing business in Africa is heavily dependent on relationships, so leverage this time to strengthen your relationships with key players on the continent. Use our conference app to identify those you’d like to meet with, schedule a time, select a location and expand your network or reconnect with an old colleague..Read More...

The Student posters presentation will focus on high calibre conservation students across Rwanda showcasing solutions of at least one of the growth factors required to become a Growth Industry

This side session at the Business of Conservation Conference 2019 will explore the intersection of conservation, communities, and business. It will share insights from innovative joint venture models that are driving investment in securing land, benefiting local economies and delivering conservation outcomes in East Africa and the wider region..Read more...

During this session, we will offer viewings of films such as the new Lion King, National Geographic’s documentary Into the Okavango, or The Elephant Queen before engaging in a lively debate about the advantages and disadvantages of how Africa’s story is portrayed in mainstream media today...Read more...

As the sun sets over Kigali, engage with 300 leaders from around the world as you sip cocktails and listen to live entertainment. Build relationships with passionate minds who are bringing innovation to conservation

Registered attendees checking in to pick up badges, bottles and other items at registration desk

Enjoy uplifting live entertainment as Fred Swaniker, Founder & CEO of African Leadership Group officially welcomes you to day 1 of the conference. Fred will introduce the “Environmental Investing” theme and set the stage for how we will explore its three sub-themes of BCC 2019: 1. Enabling political environment, 2. Talent, and 3. Sustainable business models. We will also provide updates on progress made towards commitments made during BCC2018 and launch the commitment desk for BCC2019

How does one create a viable, self-sustaining business model in conservation? Come prepared for a mind shift as you learn from ‘conservation entrepreneurs’ with successful business models

Learn how to structure large-scale conservation projects that develop communities, enable healthy ecosystems and yield financial returns. Impact investing, project finance, and other forms of capital will be explored.

Note: This session will be translated into French as well.

Conservation business models face the challenge of developing sustainable nature-based enterprises that generate real value and opportunities for local communities. This session will provide an overview of promising models for community-private sector partnerships and opportunities to unlock greater wealth creation from wildlife, forests, and other resources.  Co-organized by McKinsey & Company Partnership for Forests Program and Maliasili.

 

Note: This session will be translated into French as well.

How do conservation organisations approach the challenge of “from scarcity to abundance” in creating parks, maintaining parks or bringing different kinds of investors into different types of parks and what does each stakeholder need to get to their “yes”.

The session will provide interested business people and conservationists with step-by-step guidance to unlocking the ecosystem service values in lion landscapes, and a set of tools to help. Panellists will give a series of very brief presentations to describe the context and the various ecosystem services available, along with examples of how they have been transformed into business ventures. An interactive session will then: (1) start with guidance on judging if a country or region is “benefits-ready” for the sustainable use of ecosystem services; (2) then introduce various methods for assessing these services; and finally (3) describe ways of exploiting the business opportunities provided by ecosystem services. 

You may be familiar with the TV show ‘Shark Tank’, where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of investors. At BCC2019, we’re doing our own conservation version: Leopard’s Cove. A selection of innovative conservation entrepreneurs will step up to pitch their cutting edge scalable ideas to a panel of investors for the chance to secure the funding they need to launch and/or scale their enterprise. Sign up here to qualify for one of eight slots in the cove to pitch a business idea that can leverage Africa's unique biodiversity for sustainable economic development. Selected entrepreneurs will receive coaching and support to fine-tune their idea and prepare a compelling pitch for the competition

Take time to establish new relationships and deepen old ones over an unstructured lunch break

Young people today dream of working at technology companies like Google, Amazon, Netflix and Facebook. This is a signal that technology is a ‘hot’ growth industry. How can we get Africa’s most dynamic young talent to view “environmental investing” (a.k.a. conservation) as an exciting career option as well? How can we get more women to work in conservation? During this session, you will meet young African leaders who are changing the face of conservation. You will better understand what excites them, what turns them off, and how we can ‘refresh’ the talent pool for conservation. This is a crucial issue to address given that many ‘old-timers’ in conservation are close to retirement

Named after a notable philanthropist and conservationist—the late Jennifer Oppenheimer—this lecture aims to honor an outstanding and inspiring global leader who understands and supports the vital connection between economic development and wildlife conservation. Please join us to honor Jennifer's memory and meet this year's honoree. This lecture will leave you with key insights you can apply to your own work

Africa—with its weak institutions—is at the mercy of its leaders.  Yet today, the majority of African conservation efforts are not led by Africans. Get a first-hand taste of how the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation is changing this by developing African conservation leaders. You will learn directly from our expert facilitators, interact with our young leaders, and solve conservation problems as you experience ALU’s innovative learning methods. Bring your notebook and get ready to be a student again! This is also a great opportunity to find bright young talent for your organization

Duration: 40-minute session

Africa—with its weak institutions—is at the mercy of its leaders.  Yet today, the majority of African conservation efforts are not led by Africans. Get a first-hand taste of how the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation is changing this by developing African conservation leaders. You will learn directly from our expert facilitators, interact with our young leaders, and solve conservation problems as you experience ALU’s innovative learning methods. Bring your notebook and get ready to be a student again! This is also a great opportunity to find bright young talent for your organization

Duration: 40-minute session

Africa—with its weak institutions—is at the mercy of its leaders.  Yet today, the majority of African conservation efforts are not led by Africans. Get a first-hand taste of how the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation is changing this by developing African conservation leaders. You will learn directly from our expert facilitators, interact with our young leaders, and solve conservation problems as you experience ALU’s innovative learning methods. Bring your notebook and get ready to be a student again! This is also a great opportunity to find bright young talent for your organization

Duration: 40-minute session

Africa—with its weak institutions—is at the mercy of its leaders.  Yet today, the majority of African conservation efforts are not led by Africans. Get a first-hand taste of how the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation is changing this by developing African conservation leaders. You will learn directly from our expert facilitators, interact with our young leaders, and solve conservation problems as you experience ALU’s innovative learning methods. Bring your notebook and get ready to be a student again! This is also a great opportunity to find bright young talent for your organization

Duration: 40-minute session

Africa—with its weak institutions—is at the mercy of its leaders.  Yet today, the majority of African conservation efforts are not led by Africans. Get a first-hand taste of how the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation is changing this by developing African conservation leaders. You will learn directly from our expert facilitators, interact with our young leaders, and solve conservation problems as you experience ALU’s innovative learning methods. Bring your notebook and get ready to be a student again! This is also a great opportunity to find bright young talent for your organization

Duration: 40-minute session

Africa—with its weak institutions—is at the mercy of its leaders.  Yet today, the majority of African conservation efforts are not led by Africans. Get a first-hand taste of how the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation is changing this by developing African conservation leaders. You will learn directly from our expert facilitators, interact with our young leaders, and solve conservation problems as you experience ALU’s innovative learning methods. Bring your notebook and get ready to be a student again! This is also a great opportunity to find bright young talent for your organization

Duration: 40-minute session

Africa—with its weak institutions—is at the mercy of its leaders.  Yet today, the majority of African conservation efforts are not led by Africans. Get a first-hand taste of how the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation is changing this by developing African conservation leaders. You will learn directly from our expert facilitators, interact with our young leaders, and solve conservation problems as you experience ALU’s innovative learning methods. Bring your notebook and get ready to be a student again! This is also a great opportunity to find bright young talent for your organization

Duration: 40-minute session

This uplifting evening will celebrate what’s working in conservation and provide yet another opportunity for you to build your conservation connections and make new ones. Hear from a keynote speaker who is applying innovating methods to enable the wildlife economy. Enjoy energizing performances of song and dance

Dive into a lively session about untapped opportunities to create a multi-billion dollar marine economy. Help create a Pan-African marine agenda to drive growth while protecting our oceans

Engage with high-level political leaders from several African countries in a dialogue about how leadership and government policy is enabling or hindering the potential for Africa’s wildlife economy

This session will kick off with an interactive dialogue with African policymakers who are actually “in the trenches” setting conservation policies. With the insights you glean, you will get your hands dirty with a real-world simulation of how conservation policy is set in Africa. This lively simulation will give you a better perspective of the various interests at play, tradeoffs/compromises that have to be made, and what best practice conservation policy looks like. You will also explore how policy-making can be made more effective and efficient

Take advantage of the incredible network at the conference to continue building relationships on this last day of the gathering

Through a series of short ‘TED-style’ talks, several mavericks will share their innovative approaches to conservation and working across all three factors to transform conservation into a growth industry

Enjoy an inspiring keynote from a leader who is focused on making conservation work for both wildlife and communities. Learn new practices and perspectives that you can apply to your own organization or policies. You will then hear about the commitments that have come from the commitment desk throughout the conference. Hear how this powerful group plans to invest in Africa and its environmental assets--in very tangible terms--over the next year. Commitments will be tracked by ALU, with progress reports at next year’s conference

Sign up to join a small group of conference attendees for a cosy evening of informal, unstructured conversation and reflection around financially sustainable business models at one of Kigali's top restaurants. Use this relaxed time to engage with fascinating people you’ve met or heard from over the last few days or conclude that last collaboration opportunity. This is your final chance to reflect and engage with friends before you fly home

Sign up to join a small group of conference attendees for a cosy evening of informal, unstructured conversation and reflection around how creating an enabling environment at one of Kigali's top restaurants. Use this relaxed time to engage with fascinating people you’ve met or heard from over the last few days or conclude that last collaboration opportunity. This is your final chance to reflect and engage with friends before you fly home

Sign up to join a small group of conference attendees for a cosy evening of informal, unstructured conversation and reflection around how to attract talent at one of Kigali's top restaurants. Use this relaxed time to engage with fascinating people you’ve met or heard from over the last few days or conclude that last collaboration opportunity. This is your final chance to reflect and engage with friends before you fly home