IUCN SSC CPSG Species Conservation Planning Training

The Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG) of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) has been developing and delivering collaborative species conservation planning processes for conservation organisations worldwide for more than 30 years. To provide support for individuals and organisations who would like to develop their own capacity to deliver species conservation planning, CPSG has partnered with ConservationTraining.org to offer this multiple-module, six week course. The course provides access to some of the tools and skills that can help you facilitate species conservation planning workshops, or any workshop/meeting process where groups need to do ‘good’ thinking and build agreement around specific courses of action. The course is currently offered to a closed group of participants as we include certain ‘live’ aspects (in particular weekly webinars and discussion threads) where interaction between participants and with course presenters is encouraged.

Getting Started

To be selected for the course you need to first email CPSG’s Director of Training, Jamie Copsey for an application form and details on when the course will be run. Once selected Jamie will be in touch with you with pre-course materials. Each module will take approximately 4-6 hours to complete, totalling approximately 24-36 hours for the entire course.

You are expected to complete all six modules of the six week course and to PASS all of the end of module knowledge checks (75% is the PASS mark) in order to receive an (electronic) Certificate of Completion. We encourage you to consider submitting for a Certificate of Reflective Practice, which requires you to submit the following documents after the course, for assessment:

  • A Personal Development Plan (template will be provided during the course)
  • A written plan for a multi-stakeholder workshop or other meeting event which you intend to facilitate
  • A summary of both qualitative and quantitative feedback from participants of the workshop (we can provide you with a survey template to modify)
  • A 500 word personal reflective statement

This certificate demonstrates that you have both completed the course and have applied the learning to a meeting or workshop process. Whilst this may only be the start of your journey to becoming an established and effective facilitator of species conservation processes it illustrates that you are thinking about how you improve your practice.


Get started by clicking the title of the course below.

You must create an account and login to ConservationTraining.org before accessing these courses.

Need help? Contact ctptraining@tnc.org

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CPSG Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis (WDRA) August 2025
The Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis (WDRA) online training course provides a thorough grounding in principles, processes and tools needed to conduct a robust, evidence-based disease risk analysis involving wildlife. Although primarily developed to address disease as a threat to wildlife, the WDRA process has wide application and can be equally used for situations in which the focus is the health of people or domestic animals living in proximity with wildlife. It will be of interest to anyone actively engaged in the assessment and mitigation of disease risks to wildlife (in situ and ex situ) or disease risks arising from interactions between wildlife, domestic animals or people (e.g. government agencies, veterinary practice, public health, zoo work, field research etc).

Apply here or email training@cpsg.org for more information.

Facilitating Species Conservation Planning Workshops - September 2025

This course is designed for conservation practitioners who want to design and facilitate a species conservation planning workshop. The processes, tools, and skills covered during this course are also relevant to those wanting to improve their management of group problem-solving, decision-making, and planning.

Duration: 6 weeks; 5-10 hours per week (depending on your reading speed)

This course is currently offered by invitation only.

CPSG Ex Situ Conservation Assessment

CPSG Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis (WDRA)
The Wildlife Disease Risk Analysis (WDRA) online training course provides a thorough grounding in principles, processes and tools needed to conduct a robust, evidence-based disease risk analysis involving wildlife. Although primarily developed to address disease as a threat to wildlife, the WDRA process has wide application and can be equally used for situations in which the focus is the health of people or domestic animals living in proximity with wildlife. It will be of interest to anyone actively engaged in the assessment and mitigation of disease risks to wildlife (in situ and ex situ) or disease risks arising from interactions between wildlife, domestic animals or people (e.g. government agencies, veterinary practice, public health, zoo work, field research etc).


Contacts for the course, including enrollment key:  Jamie Copsley