FERAL in collaboration with the Rufford Foundation, UK, organised a four‐day conferences for the Rufford Small Grants recipients, in Udaipur, Rajasthan between 12th and 15th March 2022. Rufford Foundation is an organisation based in the United Kingdom that supports nature conservation projects in various developing countries. Till date, the foundation has funded over 1,200 projects in the Indian sub‐continent and over 5,790 projects worldwide. Each conference is aimed at providing a forum to discuss ideas and problems and towards creating networking opportunities between grantees. A primary objective of this meeting was to explore different aspects of conservation, action research and capacity building for conservation at the local, regional and global levels. Due to the Covid‐19 pandemic, the Rufford conferences were a mix of online and of line events, and participants had the option of attending the conference in‐person or virtually. 

The theme of the Udaipur Conference was “conservation in semi‐arid and arid landscapes”. This was the seventh conference that had been organised in collaboration with FERAL. This event provided an opportunity for the grantees to interact with the conservationists and researchers working in arid and semi‐arid parts of Western India. There were 21 presentations by researchers and four popular talks during the event. Participants also visited the Kumbhalgarh Fort and the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary.