Fauna & Flora is an international wildlife conservation charity. We work closely with conservation partners in well over 40 countries to save nature, together. Our focus is on protecting and restoring habitats, saving species from extinction and developing sustainable livelihoods for those living closest to nature. Our people are based around the world; supporting projects on the ground in-country and providing technical and operational expertise from our UK head office, and from regional offices across the globe. We apply our expertise across a range of issues affecting nature – whether that’s habitat destruction, illegal wildlife trade or unsustainable resource use. Climate change or plastic pollution. Corporate sustainability or global policy.
2023:
EDI objectives joyfully achieved:
- In June 2023, we appointed a Wellbeing & EDI Officer, a dedicated resource who works with our EDI Working Group to set and actively work towards our EDI objectives across our regions.
- We have a strong and committed EDI Working Group composing of employees from all levels of the organisation including members from our People Team and Senior Leadership Team. The group is currently focused on EDI topics, such as inclusive recruitment, affinity groups, EDI policies and procedures in place to support employees.
- We advertise our vacancies on a broader range of job sites who are actively recognising and working towards dismantling entry barriers, to reach applicants who we would otherwise not reach.
- Transferring from unpaid internships to paid internships and advertising opportunities to reach under-resourced and subsequently under-represented groups, to improve access to conservation as a profession. In 2021 we offered four paid internships and seven in both 2022 and 2023.
- We are part of the Diverse Sustainability Initiative (DSI), a collaborative network engaging CEOs of sustainability and environmental sectors to transform diversity within the sector globally.
- We are committed to The Race Report UK, an initiative addressing the racial diversity gap and highlighting the need for greater representation in environmental and conservation organisations. The report is annual, subsequently providing comparative data of progression internally and externally.
2024:
EDI initiatives we’ll be investing in:
- Delivering live online Anti Racist training to all UK employees in 2024. This training is developed and delivered by a leader in the field of Anti Racist training in the UK. The training will help employees understand how unknowingly pervasive racism is, and how it impacts our conservation work and how we interact with each other in the workplace.
- Making Unconscious Bias & Privilege training available globally to Fauna & Flora employees on our internal Learning & Development platform. This training helps employees to understand their own identity within the context of dominant culture, privileges, biases, microaggressions and cultural competency, and how they can impact our work.
- Developing an EDI toolkit for our employees, which provides resources, support and guidance on EDI matters within the workplace.
- Commitment to better understand the cultural contexts to support our in-country teams. E.g. One-on-one meetings and team meetings with teams to listen, understand and adapt EDI & wellbeing offerings that are responsive to the cultural contexts of our regional offices.
- Creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace by continuing to ensure that our hiring practices are fair and equitable: using inclusive terminology in recruitment communications and currently exploring mechanisms for anonymising job applications during review, to eliminate any selection bias.
- Creating a more inclusive workplace by fostering a workplace culture that is respectful and welcoming of each employee by learning about and celebrating diversity throughout the year, highlighting the different cultures and backgrounds of employees.
- An equitable workplace and subsequent diverse workforce are essential as it strengthens Fauna & Flora’s conservation work in bringing invaluable perspectives and experiences to the fore. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion can help us to develop more regenerative and effective conservation strategies.
- To avoid tokenism, and to embed our EDI work within all aspects of our workplace and work culture, we are actively learning and recognising avenues where we need to focus and invest our resources. Our commitment is to continually assess, dismantle and reform ingrained organisational norms which may limit or preclude certain groups, and to effect systemic changes towards the creation of a more equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace at Fauna & Flora.