Conservation is not learned from slides. The SNBC Field Week takes thirty participants into the IITA Forest Reserve for five days of field-taught conservation leadership, using the forest itself as the teaching material.
Days start early. Dawn point-count bird surveys, transect walks and canopy observation give participants a working grasp of survey method and species identification before breakfast. Mid-mornings cover botany and tree identification, soil and water assessment, and the practical mechanics of restoration planting — seedling selection, spacing, aftercare and survival monitoring.
Afternoons move to the human side of conservation. Participants practise community engagement, learn to run a stakeholder mapping session, and work through the policy and financing pathways that decide whether a restoration project survives past its first year. The week closes with team-designed restoration plans presented to facilitators and community representatives.
Participants leave having planted, surveyed and documented real ground, with a field kit and a plan they can take back to their own community.