It totally made sense to me, that in order to be able to successfully protect key species, you had to empower local people first for them to care about the species you want to protect. I finally knew what I wanted to do, which allowed me to combine my love for animals, my need to be outdoors in the field and my desire to have a direct impact in the world.
Conservation nowadays comes in many shapes, but through my career I have had the chance to work on birds, monkeys, whales and sharks. What I love is that it encompasses many job aspects, therefore it is varied, allowing you to juggle office work and time in the field in tropical locations. Often there are dedicated field seasons, which are unique time windows to collect data on a specific species or event. Those usually last a few months. During the seasons the fieldwork is very intense, but often the team is highly motivated and brings together passionate people. It is both very exciting and humbling to be a part of the experience. It is also exhausting as the living and working conditions are very basic.
Initially, I worked on temporary job positions on field seasons. Thanks to that experience I was asked to work in management to lead scientists in the field during field seasons. At first I felt doubtful, but very quickly I started to love it. By thriving to be a better leader, I could maintain my team motivated and united, who in turn could produce better results. I realized I really enjoyed leading and people enjoyed my leadership, which led me to start my own organization at the age of 26 called the Madagascar Whale Shark Project.
