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 BirdLife International is a proud partner of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative

The Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) is a collaborative partnership which brings together leading national and international biodiversity conservation organisations with the University of Cambridge. 

Our mission is to transform the global understanding and conservation of biodiversity to secure a sustainable future for all life on Earth.

CCI brings together the largest group of conservation researchers and practitioners in the world and enables them to work together more effectively across a range of conservation activities, from research and education to policy and on-the-ground action.

Melissa Howes-Whitecross releases a tagged Secretarybird © Caroline Howes
Melissa Howes-Whitecross releases a tagged Secretarybird © Caroline Howes

CCI was created by the partners to promote greater strategic collaboration to enable us, as conservationists, to tackle some of our planet’s most pressing threats in ways that would be difficult to achieve alone.

By joining together, CCI partners can complement their existing conservation activities with new approaches that transcend disciplines and allow us to tackle emerging challenges.

CCI is also uniquely placed to feed new thinking and training into worldwide conservation practice and policy through the partner conservation organisations and their networks. Similarly, the experience, knowledge and information from on-the-ground implementation of policy and practice is fed into CCI’s research and teaching through the Conservation Research Institute and the MPhil in Conservation Leadership at the University of Cambridge.

Local women training in project planning Jordan © Enviromatics

 Sir David Attenborough – CCI’s Honorary Patron

Sir David Attenborough is Honorary Patron of CCI and has championed the collaborative initiative since it first formed in 2007. He has supported many of our CCI activities over the years and is an enormous source of inspiration for our staff.

Sir David has described CCI as ‘an extraordinary marriage between outstanding practical conservationists and inspiring intellectual thinkers which will shape the future of life on Earth.’

 The David Attenborough Building

In 2016, an exciting new conservation hub for CCI organisations was opened in the centre of Cambridge. Known as the David Attenborough Building, the hub houses around 500 conservation academics and conservation professionals and it provides a vibrant space that encourages interaction and collaboration. Each of the CCI organisations have staff based in the building.