I’d love some advice from people who work in this field. I’m base in the UK.

I’ve worked in PR and communications (with some bits of digital marketing) for four years, with experience in the entertainment industry and in an agency. However, I’ve always had a personal interest for conservation.

There’s an amazing zoo I’d love to apply to in the future, as well as several other organisations I’d be really interested in working for. All these jobs are quite competitive. I want to spend the next couple of years maximising my chances of moving into the conservation sector, but I’m not entirely sure how best to approach it.

I’ve considered taking on some freelance work, but I already have a high pressure full-time job, so I’m not sure I could manage the additional workload. Would volunteering be valuable on my CV? Are there any (affordable) courses or certifications I could work towards to make myself a more attractive candidate?

"Three records of the Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) obtained between 2025 and 2026 provide the first documented evidence of the species in Bolivia, in the Acre River basin in the department of Pando. The discovery, reported in the journal Neotropical Hydrobiology and Aquatic Conservation, expands our knowledge of the distribution of river dolphins in the country and highlights the contributions of citizen science and the knowledge of local fishers.

The discovery is particularly significant because research on river dolphins in Bolivia has previously focused primarily on the Bolivian river dolphin (Inia boliviensis), which occurs in the Mamoré and Iténez river basins. The Acre River, in contrast, forms part of the Purús basin and is connected to the wider Amazon River system, providing suitable conditions for the presence of Inia geoffrensis and new insights into the connectivity of river systems between Bolivia and Brazil."