Effective leadership has been advocated as important in guiding successful conservation programmes to achieve more impactful biodiversity results. Conservation work demands diverse capabilities, so organisations must be aware of what influences leadership effectiveness, including the influence of gender. The Conservation Excellence Model (CEM) allows assessment of conservation project effectiveness, including leadership aspects. The objectives of this study are to: 1) evaluate a mammal species conservation programme in Brazil, a region of critical importance to biodiversity, 2) benchmark with other conservation programmes to identify effective practices, and 3) conduct an in-depth evaluation of leadership skills to explore gender-related aspects of leadership. This study emphasises that good conservation organisational practices are related to Monitoring and Evaluation (within Strategic planning and Theories of Change) and the engagement of the local community. Both male and female leaders displayed common leadership characteristics such as the ability to build partnerships, establish the programme's purpose and vision, and delegate tasks. Both females and males were considered committed leaders, although only men were described as "role models". Other differences included how women were characterised as "hands-on managers" and men as "giving training opportunities". Leadership roles appear male-dominated, representing challenges for women to achieve higher positions. Women notably face a lack of mentorship, lengthy work hours, exclusion from decision-making, and sexual harassment. Nevertheless,

Conservation professionals are becoming more proactive in collaborating with local communities when developing strategies for coexisting with predators. Community perceptions are, however, often still ignored including the social dynamics underlying residents’ relationships with predator species and people’s attitudes towards solutions that are suggested within conservation interventions. The effectiveness of interventions to mitigate or eliminate conflict are highly dependent on the context of the conflict, the landscape and communities involved as well as species behavior. Human-predator conflict persists in most landscapes where predators and livestock overlap spatially, and in many regions farmers and pastoralists are experiencing increased losses from felids, bears, and canids. How communities perceive the risk of predators to their livelihoods and the efficacy of methods to reduce risk are important factors for building local support and long-term success of conservation. While researchers often focus on quantitative measures of risk and efficacy of prevention tools, the negative impacts to wildlife stemming from human-predator conflict is emotionally and culturally driven by the communities that are being affected. The importance of perception is often overlooked in human wildlife conflict studies but is crucial to understand for development of long-term success in conflict reduction strategies.