North Florida Land Trust’s Land Protection Director selected for prestigious program

Jacksonville, Fla., May 24, 2016 – North Florida Land Trust is proud to announce Marc Hudson, NFLT’s Land Protection Director, has been selected for the Kinship Conservation Fellows Program. Hudson is the only applicant from the United States and one of only 18 people from around the world chosen to participate in this prestigious program in 2016. The fellows come from diverse regions and have varying interests in environmental issues. The Kinship Conservation Fellows Program trains the experienced conservationists in the use of market-based principles to address environmental challenges.

“I am so honored that I was selected for this program,” said Hudson. “Under the fellowship I can broaden my spectrum of knowledge and bring some skills back to Northeast Florida that will help broaden our range of conservation opportunities.”

The Kinship Conservation Fellows Program will take place June 26 through July 27 in Bellingham, Washington. During the month-long program, the fellows will participate in expert-led discussions, peer learning sessions, systems-thinking exercises, role-play, skills practice, and field visits. The purpose will be to improve how practitioners interpret and respond to complex environmental conservation problems.

Each fellow must bring a project to the program, either an activity from their current work or a future initiative. During the session work, fellows will develop the project and ideas in the mutually supportive peer-working activities. They will present the project twice; first to fellows for informal feedback and at the end of the month-long program they will present to fellows, faculty, advisory council members, and guests to show what has been done to advance the project.

“It’s not every day you get to showcase a local conservation project in front of panels of international experts,” said Hudson.

Kinship Conservation Fellows Director Nigel Asquith believes collaboration is key to solving environmental problems. He says the peer-to-peer learning focus will guide the fellows as they tackle real-life challenges, from establishing a trading platform for improved conservation outcomes in tropical commodities to exploring biodiversity offsets in Mexican Protected Areas.

Hudson will use the knowledge gained towards the creation of a multi-million dollar sea level rise resiliency fund for Northeast Florida. Doing so will allow NFLT and its many partners to research and experiment with ways of saving our coastal habitats from the threat of sea level rise.

Hudson has been the Land Protection Director at NFLT since 2012. He oversees the land trust’s real estate acquisitions, restoration, programmatic partnerships, GIS and develops the strategic conservation plan.

Once Hudson completes the program, he will be included in the prestigious list of Kinship Conservation Fellows which currently includes 228 fellows from 51 countries and all seven continents.

About North Florida Land Trust
North Florida Land Trust is a non-profit organization who serves as a champion of land conservation primarily in Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, Putnam, and St. Johns counties. NFLT was founded in 1999 and has protected thousands of acres of environmentally significant land including land at Big Talbot Island, the River Branch Preserve, Pumpkin Hill, Moccasin Slough, along the St. Mary’s River and other valued natural areas in Northeast Florida. NFLT is funded largely by private and corporate contributions and works closely with private landowners and other public agencies at all levels of government, not-for-profit partners, and foundations. For more information, visit www.northfloridalandtrust.org.

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This release was published on openPR.