From May 2017 to September 2019, 72 young people from 23 different countries paid to participate in Nature Seychelles’ Conservation Boot Camp program. Designed to equip young people with real-life conservation skills, the program uses Cousin Island Special Reserve, Seychelles – a 50 year old conservation success – as a training laboratory. At the same time, the program acts as another sustainable funding mechanism for the protected area. It has been financially supported by GOS-UNDP-GEF Protected Area finance project from April 2016 to December 2019. The GEF project pays for a full time CBC Coordinator, some equipment and materials among other things.