An advanced education and training program on biodiversity conservation and climate change was implemented at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, targeted at building the capacity of early- to mid-career conservation professionals from the Albertine Rift region. This MacArthur foundation-funded effort was jointly implemented by START, Washington DC and the Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA), University of Dar es Salaam. The project duration was approximately one year, from January 2007 through December 2008. A total of twenty conservation professionals from the Albertine Rift countries of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania were engaged in this enterprise.