Wildlife of all kinds freely cross the borders of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, but is the research data needed to protect them as mobile?

Monica Morrison, a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University and a 2014 Research Award recipient, sought to find out if the extensive research on this vital resource was leading to better management and whether there were more effective ways to communicate the information.

“My IDRC experience helped to focus and contextualize my study, giving me much needed arm’s length distance to review my fieldwork with conservation scientists, tourism operators, and government officials,” she says. “I began to really like the way my chosen world of work was heading.”

“It also made me think in new ways,” she says. “At IDRC I was surrounded by professional sharers of knowledge. Especially illuminating moments included learning how to write for the Web and being exposed to current trends in development evaluation and appreciative inquiry. All these approaches set bells of recognition ringing, and I took them away with me. The experience passed all too quickly, but its influence continues,” she says.