Workshops

We are currently finalising a number of workshops which will be offered as optional extras, and we expect to open them up for booking in early March. All of them will be held in the days immediately running up to the start of the conference at Edinburgh venues. Attendee capacity of these workshops will be limited. Here are the preliminary details, which may change as we finalise the programmes.

Workshop 1: Training for Effective Conservation Translocations

This will be run by members of the IUCN SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group

Date: 3-6 September 2026

Cost: £ [COST TO BE CONFIRMED]

Capacity: Approx 25 people

Workshop leader: John Ewen, Zoological Society of London (ZSL)

Workshop aim: We aim to create profound benefits for nature and people by saving species and restoring the function of ecosystems. To do so, we aim to support conservation biologists and managers in designing and managing the complexities surrounding conservation translocations in terms of multi-stakeholder interests, biological uncertainties, and risk. We thereby hope to ultimately increase knowledge to plan, courage to act, certainly to secure resources, skill to respond to challenges, and the achievement of successful conservation outcomes.

Learning outcomes: By the end of the workshop, participants should be able to apply the IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations by:

  1. Developing conservation translocation Goals, Objectives, and Actions that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.
  2. Utilising a range of decision-making tools in order to develop, monitor, and adapt conservation translocation projects to achieve pre-determined objectives.
  3. Identifying and managing risks.
  4. Drawing on a suite of stakeholder engagement tools (group problem-solving, expert elicitation, etc) to overcome challenges and improve success.
  5. Understand and critically judge the conservation translocation plans received as part of an approval process.

Workshop 2: Disease risk analysis for conservation translocations

This one-day workshop will be co-run by the University of Edinburgh and ZSL. 

Date: 6 September 2026

More details, including the cost and registration link, will be confirmed by the end of February.

Workshop 3: Plant conservation translocations 

This workshop that will be held shortly before the main conference. More details, including the date, cost and registration link, will be confirmed by the end of February.

Workshop 4: Human dimension of conservation translocations 

This will be run by members of the IUCN SSC Conservation Translocation Specialist Group - Human-Wildlife Interactions Working Group

Date: 6 September 2026

Cost: £ [COST TO BE CONFIRMED]

Capacity: Approx 20 people

Workshop leader: Adriana Consorte-McCrea, Canterbury Christchurch University

Workshop summary: Issues arising from human–wildlife interactions (HWI) are often experienced in conservation translocations (CT) and can occur at any stage of a project life cycle. Overlooking or failing to consider the human dimensions could jeopardise the long-term success of CTs. When the human dimensions are included, there is a greater possibility of community involvement, peer acceptance, support from various interest groups and, ultimately, the avoidance of conflict situations.

In this action-oriented workshop, we invite participants to bring real-life human–wildlife interaction issues from their projects and offer a step-by-step process to identify what to look for at each stage of a CT cycle, with recommendations on how to address these issues. Participants will work in groups facilitated by core members of the IUCN/SSC CTSG Human–Wildlife Interactions Working Group. Together they will address key issues guided by a newly launched framework for HWI in CT. Participants will take away action-oriented messages and resources to support them along the way.

 

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