Rejoice Vimbiso Matangi grew up in Zimbabwe acutely aware of a tension at the heart of African development — the pressure to grow economies and build infrastructure, often at the cost of the natural resources future generations depend on. For her, the SPIBES MSc programme at Université Félix Houphouet-Boigny is the space where that tension gets addressed: internationally, collaboratively, and across disciplines. From mapping climate financing at the Santa Fe Institute Complexity Global School in South Africa to researching how protected areas can support sustainable fisheries at Lake Kariba, Rejoice is already living the programme’s promise. Here, she shares what drives her — and why she believes development and conservation must be pursued as one.

For Diallo Abdoulaye Djibril, the SPIBES MSc programme was more than an academic milestone — it was a gateway to the international science-policy arena. From reviewing IPBES scoping documents on business and biodiversity to assessing the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, Diallo gained hands-on exposure to the processes that shape global environmental governance. Today, back in Guinea, he applies that expertise as a biodiversity consultant for mining companies and on a World Bank-financed project spanning two government ministries. Here, he reflects on how SPIBES prepared him for a career at the intersection of industry, policy and conservation.

When Prisca Kouakou graduated from the SPIBES MSc programme in 2018, she left with more than a degree — she left with the scientific confidence and interdisciplinary foundations to pursue a PhD at the University of Cambridge. From evaluating pollination services in cashew agroforests near Comoé National Park to assisting in the revision of the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Prisca’s trajectory is a testament to where rigorous training in conservation science and policy can lead. Here, she reflects on how SPIBES shaped her path — and where it has taken her.

Chanis Clèche grew up in the equatorial forests of northern Congo, surrounded by some of the world’s richest biodiversity. But as he came of age, he watched human activity erode the very ecosystems that had shaped him — and decided he could not stand by. The Congo Basin holds 10 per cent of the world’s biodiversity, yet the Republic of Congo lacks the experts needed to understand and protect it. Chanis joined the SPIBES MSc programme to help change that — and to ensure his country’s forests and ecosystems have a voice in international policy. Here, he shares his journey and his ambitions.

Mulabengwa Mbulo comes to the SPIBES MSc programme with an urgent sense of purpose. In Zambia, the consequences of poor policy and climate change are already visible — in drying rivers, power shortages, and shrinking harvests. Driven by a long-term ambition to work with governments and NGOs on sustainable land use and biodiversity conservation, Mulabengwa sees SPIBES as the bridge between scientific research and the real-world policy change his country needs. Here, she shares what brought her to the programme and what she hopes to achieve.

Andrew Orina, a Kenyan social ecologist and forestry graduate, came to the SPIBES MSc programme driven by a simple but powerful conviction: that policy, practice, and science must be able to communicate with each other. Grounded in fieldwork among pastoral communities in Turkana, Kenya, his research explores the ecological value of forage trees — and the human cost of policies that ignore traditional knowledge. Here, he reflects on how SPIBES has equipped him to bridge that gap.