There aren’t many environmental consultants whose CVs include a stint as a professional potter. But Boris Božić has always preferred to do things his own way.
After his undergraduate degree in Environmental Science, and a Masters in Ecology, both at the University of Zagreb, Boris began a career as an environmental impact assessment consultant. But after several years, in his own words, he burned out.
“I quit the environmental, nature protection thing completely,” he says.
“I said that’s enough, it makes no sense to be a consultant in this space, nature protection is just paperwork, it was meaningless.”
Instead, he hired a studio and spent six months embracing the tactile practicality of working with clay. But when a former colleague asked him to work on a study demonstrating the biodiversity impact of a proposed campsite, he was lured back in.
“It was just one day a month for a year, so I said why not. And the results that I collected and the document that I produced were heard – people listened to me. And I realised, ok, there is something in this nature protection, but not the way it was done in my first company.”
Boris built up more clients and developed his own consultancy, specialising in renewable energy. While completing a Klaus Toepfer Fellowship programme organised by the German Federal Agency for Nature Protection which aims to support early career conservationists, he discovered the Cambridge Masters in Conservation Leadership, directed by Darwin Fellow Professor Chris Sandbrook.
Thrilled by the opportunity to spend time with like-minded people from around the world, he took a career break and secured a scholarship to undertake the course.
“I saw it as a leap in my knowledge, but also in my impact in conservation. It was a demanding course – at times it was really challenging to meet the deadlines. The interesting thing is that they advertise it as an MBA for conservation, and it is something like that. You have experts coming in, not professors, but experts from the field, coming to teach and share their knowledge. It covered a lot of things, from international law to grassroots conservation, so it was really broad.”
Building on his experience in renewable energy development, he worked with UNEP-WCMC (the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre) on a research project exploring the alignment of renewable energy development with emerging nature-positive societal goals.
The Masters in Conservation Leadership attracts a particularly international intake. Boris was the only student from Europe in his cohort.
“One of the beauties of the course was that now the world seems like home,” he says. “There are no remote places any more! There were people from all over the world: Africa, south-east Asia, south America, central America. How can I go back to Croatia after that?! Now Croatia is too small.”
Home had a compelling call on him, however, with the recent arrival of his baby son. His wife, with whom he shared family accommodation in Darwin’s Ashworth Park, was unable to be present in Cambridge for as much of the time as the couple had planned, owing to visa issues. Instead, he decompressed from the demands of the course through a combination of rowing for the Darwin College Boat Club, and playing with the Music Society.
“Every Wednesday evening there were jamming sessions, and that was fantastic. I think this plus rowing kept my sanity.”
After completing his Masters last summer, Boris joined a delegation of Conservation Leadership alumni at the CBD-COP conference on biodiversity in Cali, Colombia, before returning to Croatia. As well as picking up with former clients, he has established new ones, including IPBES (the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), whose programmes he is reviewing.
“I’m using the methodology that I learned in Cambridge, the social science, the interviews. It was really valuable, this Cambridge experience, in terms of giving you something that you can immediately use, after graduation. My previous Masters was hard ecology, hard biology…the only way forward was to be a scientist. From Cambridge, I got what I needed. It just worked.”
Boris will graduate on Saturday with a Masters in Conservation Leadership.
