CPSG runs webinars on topics related to species conservation planning to engage, support, and maintain contact with designers and facilitators of species conservation planning processes worldwide. The webinars are designed to help us to critically review good practice through presentations and discussions with practitioners from a range of conservation-related disciplines.  In particular we are keen to encourage reflection on CPSG’s Species Conservation Planning Principles & Steps and their relevance to improving the status of species worldwide.  

Webinar Series 2022

CPSG has partnered with the Global Center for Species Survival at Indianapolis Zoo to deliver our latest webinar series, introducing participants to a range of CPSG process tools and resources to support species conservation planning work worldwide. 

Upcoming Webinars

Past Webinars

Webinar Series 2022

Assessing to Plan: Multi-species Planning Pathways: In this webinar, CPSG digs deeper into the Assess to Plan (A2P) process, designed to facilitate the shift from assessment to planning by identifying the most appropriate planning pathways for different species/species groups. A recoding of this webinar can be found here.

Species Conservation Planning Steps: In this webinar, CPSG looks at the practical steps involved in developing species conservation plans with reference to a range of taxonomic case studies. A recording of this webinar can be found here. 

Principles of Species Conservation Planning: In this webinar, CPSG presents the seven core CPSG principles of species conservation planning, drawing on different case studies to illustrate their relevance. A recording of this webinar can be found here. 

Webinar Series 2021

Virtual Species Conservation Planning

In this webinar, staff from CPSG and the IUCN SSC Center for Species Survival Brazil share their thoughts on some of the challenges and solutions to effective species conservation planning in the virtual environment. This webinar was led by Jamie Copsey (CPSG), Fabiana Lopes Rocha (CPSG & CSS Brazil), and Eugenia Cordero Schmidt (CSS Brazil). (Recorded July 2021)

Assess to Plan Overview

In this short webinar, we discussed the rationale behind the development of the A2P process, shared examples of its recent application, and outlined thoughts for future development of the process. This webinar was led by CPSG's Caroline Lees. (Recorded May 2021)

Evaluating Project Effectiveness: the Conservation Excellence Model

This webinar provides an introduction to project evaluation and presents an evaluation framework, the Conservation Excellence Model (CEM). This webinar was led by Dr. Simon Black, University of Kent. (Recorded April 2021)

The Use of Spatial Models in Species Conservation Planning

This webinar provides an introduction to Habitat Suitability Modelling and its integration into the planning process. This webinar was led by Dr. Katia Ferraz, University of Sao Paulo and CPSG Brazil. (Recorded March 2021)

Previous Webinar Series

Lessons Learned in Planning & Implementing Assisted Colonizations

This webinar presented decade-long planning and trials of assisted colonization for the western swamp turtle in southwestern Australia. This webinar was led by Dr. Nicki Mitchell from the University of Western Australia.

Planning for Conservation Translocations

This webinar introduces you to the rationale behind the IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations, as well as providing personal insights relevant to planning for conservation translocations. The webinar was led by Prof. Phil Seddon, Director of the Postgraduate Wildlife Management Programme, University of Otago.  

Planning for Invasive Species Management

This webinar provides an introduction to the IUCN Guidelines for Invasive Species Planning and Management on Islands, and explores what past projects can tell us about future planning. The webinar was led by Dr. Alan Tye, an invasive species management expert and Editor of the Guidelines.

Project Management 101

The first CPSG principle is "Plan to Act." The intention is to encourage us to design a planning process that is most likely to lead to effective implementation. Understanding some core elements of the implementation phase can also help us track backwards to determine what planning process might be required. In this webinar we shine a spotlight on project management, considering some of the tips, tools and lessons learnt in this implementation phase and take the opportunity to consider the iterative process of planning and implementation. This webinar was led by Dr. Adam Barlow, Executive Director of WildTeam, a conservation skill development organization.

Planning for Human-Wildlife Coexistence

In this webinar we looked at the topic of human-wildlife conflict and how we move to a point of coexistence, considering some lessons learnt that can inform our planning work. We considered how we might apply the same rigor to modelling human behavior as we do to the wildlife populations we are concerned with conserving. Through this modelling we can begin to identify leverage points where we can direct interventions to influence the system in a desired direction of change.

Principles of Species Conservation Planning

CPSG’s Director of Training, Jamie Copsey, went through seven principles that underpin CPSG’s philosophy to planning that have been demonstrated to be effective in catalysing meaningful action.

Facilitating a Multi-stakeholder Disease Risk Analysis Workshop

Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis (DRA) is a systematic, evidence-based and transparent conservation planning process that can be applied to any situation where disease is a factor threatening wildlife. This webinar uses two examples to introduce you to the IUCN-SSC’S DRA process and how it can be applied as a stand-alone process or integrated into a broader conservation planning workshop. Specific issues to consider as a DRA facilitator are highlighted. This webinar was led by Dr. Richard Jakob-Hoff, wildlife veterinarian with over 50 years involvement in both ex situ and in situ management of wildlife, largely based in zoos in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

Working with Indigenous People: Healthy Country Planning

Healthy Country Planning (HCP) is an adaptation of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation developed with and for working with indigenous communities. This webinar introduces some of the key concepts of HCP, its use, and some of the lessons we have learned along the way.  HCP was developed in 2010 and has been gradually refined since. There are over 40 HCPs in Australia (and several now outside Australia with growing interest) covering 60+ million hectares. This webinar was led by Annette Stewart, Conservation Systems Advisor at Bush Heritage Australia, and Stuart Cowell, Director of Conservation Management, an Australian-based social enterprise that supports the use of Open Standards and Healthy Country Planning.

The IUCN Green List of Species: An Optimistic and Ambitious New Vision for Conservation

This webinar introduces the new Green List initiative and outlines its current state of development and testing. Special focus is given to the connections and relevance to conservation planning, including: defining and measuring species recovery; setting objective and ambitious recovery targets; measuring the success of conservation actions; and quantifying the dependence of species on ongoing conservation.

A PDF of the slides is available for download.

Planning for Plant Conservation

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Planning for plant conservation calls for special considerations. This webinar will:

• Give an overview of plant conservation planning;
• Describe the steps in national conservation planning;
• Elaborate on how planners, conservationists, and stakeholders should work together;
• Highlight the importance of linking conservation to human use;
• Summarize the content of conservation strategies and action plans; and
• Explain how levels of conservation planning from local to international should interconnect.

FROM PLANNING TO ACTION: LESSONS LEARNED OVER MULTIPLE SPECIES AND ACTION PLANS FOR ENDANGERED IGUANAS 

When done right, Species Action Plans provide straightforward guidance for multi-year, multi-party conservation efforts. But having a plan is like having a recipe- you can envision the potential result but it will require work to get there. This webinar will help participants improve Action Plan implementation by addressing issues during the planning stage and during the implementation process. Using assessments of several implemented plans for endangered iguanas, we will review common pitfalls and suggest some technological tools and processes to help avoid them.

Uncertainty: Its forms and how to include it in conservation decision-making

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About the Instructor

Dr John Ewen, ZSL

John's research focuses on small population recovery, often involving conservation translocation, and the decision science that packages this. He enjoys working with recovery teams on solutions to complicated decisions starting from being explicit in their values (expressed as objectives) and then using their science to ensure they best achieve them. One of his mottos is ‘science doesn’t make decisions it informs them’. Although he works across a broad range of species, he has been most closely involved with hihi, a threatened passerine species found in New Zealand.

He is a member of CPSG and the Re-introducation Specialist Group.

EXPERT ELICITATION: EXTRACTING BEST AVAILABLE INFORMATION TO INFORM CONSERVATION DECISION-MAKING

This webinar will provide an overview of why and how to formally elicit expert judgment. Conservation planning, no matter how strongly evidence-based, typically requires some degree of expert judgment. But can we trust those experts? And how can we make the process more transparent? By structuring how we elicit this judgment from experts, we can avoid many sources of implicit bias and use group dynamics to our advantage. This webinar will illustrate the risks of unstructured expert judgment, talk about the power of groups and the performance of experts, describe a formal elicitation protocol, and lead the audience through a couple of examples in endangered species management.

ASSESSING EX SITU CONSERVATION OPTIONS: GUIDELINES, TOOLS AND CASE STUDIES

This webinar will provide an overview of the IUCN Guidelines for the Use of Ex Situ Management for Species Conservation and its five-step decision process to assess if ex situ activities are recommended as a conservation tool for a species and, if so, how they should be structured. We also will provide examples on how to apply this decision process in a variety of single and multi-species workshop settings, from Population and Habitat Viability Assessments (PHVAs) to Integrated Collection Assessment and Planning workshops (ICAPs).

From planning to implementation: lessons learned with Vancouver Island marmots 

This webinar provides an opportunity to review a case study of the link between planning and implementation and what has been learned in the process of implementation that might inform future planning processes. The webinar was led by Dr. Liz Gillis, from the Department of Resource Management and Protection at Vancouver Island University, and Adam Taylor, Executive Director of the Marmot Recovery Foundation. 

A recording of the webinar can be viewed here.