Motivation helps, but if you are not disciplined, if you are not focused and have no goal, it is very difficult to keep going. - Adjany Costa

Sometimes we have to take a step back. That doesn’t mean that you have to stop moving forward, it just means that it might not be at the pace that you want, and that is very normal.

I think one of the main reasons that projects usually don’t include communities is that it’s a very long-term approach. First, you have to build trust, then you have to learn to speak their language and dialogue. You have to understand what they think, what they know, how they see the environment, and only then can you start proposing certain concepts that they can apply to their livelihoods. That is something that takes a lot of time, a lot of human effort, and a lot of patience.

As conservationists we see degradation happening every day, so we are always in a hurry – we want things to happen right now.