Adaptive project management using Conservation Standards

Facilitated by James Goetz, Vermont Center for Ecostudies,  Omar Monzón, Para La Naturaleza and Hodali Almonte, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural.

Emails: jgoetz@vtecostudies.org, omar@paralanaturaleza.org, almontehodali@hotmail.com

Purpose: The purpose of this one-day workshop is to train participants in the basics of adaptive project management using Conservation Standards (CS), and to inspire them to use CS, or other formal planning, implementation, monitoring, and learning frameworks to improve their conservation impact.

Overview: Given scarce resources to implement conservation actions and increasingly complex conservation challenges, and the increasing demand for collaborative responses to conservation threats, it is crucial to follow a clear, coherent and systematic analysis and planning methodology to develop effective adaptive management interventions, that we can learn from and then use to share our new knowledge and experiences broadly with other practitioners and supporters. The Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation methodology is a suite of practices that enhance conservation professionals’ ability to engage in effective real-life adaptive management.

Objectives: The main objective is to teach participants principles of effective conservation planning and communication and to give participants hands-on experience using a set of tools and techniques to implement these principles. 

Session Structure: The workshop will run from 9 am to 5 pm on July 17th. It will feature short presentations (5-10 min) followed by hands-on exercises to learn CS principles and practices experientially, with feedback and learning insights from peers and trainers.