Workshops SCCS-NY 2021

This workshop will introduce participants to conservation planning and the tools and value of adaptive management (AM). Participants will learn how to carefully define their conservation goals and methods for monitoring outcomes, as well as measure, record, and analyze their results. We will introduce the Conservation Standards (Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation)—which bring together common concepts, approaches, and terminology for conservation project design, management, and monitoring. We at Foundations of Success (FOS) partner with conservation teams and help to empower practitioners to apply these standard practices to design effective conservation projects. As a virtual organization, FOS has an amazing arsenal of virtual tools that we utilize to work with partners all over the world. During this workshop, we will use a collaborative whiteboard space to interact with participants and practice applying the first two steps of the Conservation Standards. Participants will also have the opportunity to diagram theories of change, which articulate assumptions on how a conservation strategy will mitigate a threat and ultimately improve the status of a targeted species or habitats. We will further introduce participants to bringing in evidence to support their projects, help connect them to the conservation planning community, and introduce a library of resources to use beyond the workshop.

Organizers: Varsha Suresh & Jaclyn Lucas, Foundations of Success

Sustaining biodiversity requires working effectively across multiple sectors and having the skills to manage successful partnerships. This workshop will provide real-world insights and proven tools for early and mid-career practitioners who are in the early stages of engaging with partners across different sectors. This interactive and inclusive workshop will stimulate the sharing of diverse experiences and liberate new insights based on best practices of partnerships, including understanding often-overlooked differences between collaboration, coordination and cooperation. In facilitated cafe-style conversations, participants will be introduced to critical partnership skills and tools for cross-sector collaboration in conservation. Participants will leave with new perspectives and tools for confidently navigating the complexities and rewards of launching and working in partnership with other sectors.

Organizers: Christina Imrich, Leala Rosen, Conservation Leadership Program, Wildlife Conservation Society; Stuart Patterson, Fauna & Flora International, Conservation Leadership Programme; Kate Mastro, Wildlife Conservation Society; Nina Hadley, Global Wildlife Conservation

Visualization is a powerful means of enhancing our ability to learn from data and to communicate results to others, especially when informed by insights into human behavior and social systems. Addressing complex and often urgent environmental problems that involve diverse audiences requires understanding how to effectively communicate with data, and is essential for researchers, policymakers, and the public. Students will gain an understanding of the principles, techniques, and tools needed to communicate effectively with data. The workshop will consist of short lectures about principles of design, data preparation, and visual communication; discussions about examples from the news and scientific literature; peer critiques; and hands-on individual and collaborative group activities.

Learning goals:

- Understand the strengths and challenges of human perception

- Articulate the three principles of effective communication and give examples of each

- Distinguish between good, ugly, and wrong data visualizations

- Construct accurate and effective graphics using evidence-based design principles

- Use resources to learn a variety of widely-available software tools (we will not teach any specific software in the workshop)

- Receive constructive feedback on your own graphics

Organizer: Simon Queenborough, Yale School of the Environment

Species distribution modeling (SDM) is an important tool for conservation scientists, as it enables us to estimate present species range limits and make predictions about ranges for other areas and time periods. Advances in model-building and evaluation theory are common in the ecology and evolution literature. However, most cutting-edge methods are only accessible to those scientists who can read and write computer code, which results in a ‘barrier to use’ for many potential users. The Wallace ecological modeling application, implemented in the R programming language as the CRAN package “wallace”, provides a graphical user interface allowing any user to implement advanced SDM methods. Additionally, Wallace provides extensive guidance text and references key papers from the literature to help both new and experienced users learn best practices. Each model-building session can be exported as a fully documented R Markdown script file, to ensure reproducibility, ease of reporting, and for more advanced users, an easily modifiable code that extends Wallace’s functionality. In this workshop, we will go through the basics of SDM using Wallace. We will demonstrate the key features of the modular software, show applications to conservation science, and specifically the utility of SDM outputs for formal IUCN assessments.

Organizers: Beth Gerstner, Michigan State University; Samuel Chang, Pace University; Gonzalo Pinilla-Buitrago, City College of New York; Matthew Aiello-Lammens, Pace University; Mary Blair, American Museum of Natural History

Effective biodiversity conservation relies on our ability to understand species’ habitat preferences and how a given species of concern moves through a fragmented landscape. Identifying potentially suitable habitat and movement corridors allows conservation researchers and practitioners to survey and protect land for species of concern. Species’ locations and movements are inherently spatial problems, requiring spatial analyses as solutions. Geographic information system (GIS) software is an essential tool for performing spatial analyses. QGIS, an open-source GIS platform, is becoming a standard tool for spatial analysis in conservation research and practice. In this workshop, participants will practice using QGIS to determine habitat suitability for a terrestrial species and then identify corridors between most suitable habitat patches. Although we will be using a terrestrial species as an example, procedures taught in our workshop are applicable to marine conservation as well. Attendees will be guided through modeling suitable habitat for a species of conservation concern. They will then use this model of suitable habitat to demonstrate least-cost path (LCP) analysis. This workshop is for intermediate users of QGIS who have a working knowledge of basic QGIS functionality, including adding, projecting, and cleaning spatial datasets.

Organizers: Manette Sandor, Columbia University & American Museum of Natural History; Peter Galante, American Museum of Natural History

Sharing conservation research and policy proposals in written format is the currency of a career in science. Yet few academic programs teach us how to write and present our work to the scholarly and lay audience. The goal of this workshop is to discuss important elements of writing and how to apply them anywhere in the research and writing process – from developing a research idea or question to preparing grants and manuscripts. We will focus both on scholarly writing as well as writing for popular science media. Bring your own research ideas or existing research that you’re writing up for funding, conference presentation, journal publication, or popular media. We will discuss how to highlight the importance of your work, maintaining integrity and staying within your authority in different media, and crafting the voice of your piece so that it is audience appropriate. Finally, you will learn a bit about how science journalism works, and how to get started doing this type of science communication.

Organizers: Andrea DiGiorgio, Princeton Writing Program & Rutgers University; Cathryn Freund, Massive Science

During this interactive session, we will create a space to network with other participants and mentors in person, and engage in a guided, in-depth exploration of leadership styles and skills, to understand your leadership strengths and challenges. No matter where you are on your professional journey, you can join us to network and grow as leader in conservation. This session will be applied, experiential, and everyone will leave with new insights and contacts! This session will be run collaboratively by the Conservation Leadership Programme and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

Two recent UN reports stated that biodiversity was declining rapidly and that fundamental societal change was needed to avert further decline and enable recovery. The reports are unprecedented in pointing to causes rather than symptoms. UN agencies cannot generate such changes; only those committed to the natural world can do so by creating and executing sound political strategies.

Neither the Millennium goals nor Aichi targets were realized. How can that be changed? Even some politically sophisticated conservationists accept existing trends (e.g. growing human conversion of the world into commodities) and power relationships which are incompatible with biodiversity recovery.

This workshop focuses on developing for both direct protection and societal change. Workshop participants will select a goal in each case to be the subject of strategy development and by addressing a series of strategic questions. Participants will receive the questions prior to the workshop; they identify the tasks that must be accomplished to generate the political support to achieve the goal.

The workshop aims to provide participants experience in developing sound strategies for mobilizing resources for fundamental change and bringing them to bear on decision makers.

Organizer: David Johns, Portland State University

The knowledge deficit model of conservation tells us that providing information is a necessary but not sufficient condition to engage in positive conservation action. Engagement needs to be rooted in stories, emotions, and relevance to the potential conservationists. For the past three years we have used a novel method of storytelling to engage a diverse and passionate audience in learning about marine biology and marine conservation – the world of the tabletop role playing game Dungeons and Dragons. In our popular podcast, Dugongs and Sea Dragons, a group of diverse marine conservation partitioners come together to tell engaging stories which are grounded in peer review literature, and yet also convey the passion, drama, and humor which are hallmarks of successful science communication. For our workshop we would like to do a live recording of our podcast and provide the audience an opportunity to participate through active engagement with the story and the players. We will then follow up with a discussion on the potentials and pitfalls of using game play as a method of science outreach and communication. We have run similar events at the 2018 International Marine Conservation Congress and 2019’s AweseomeCon drawing engaged (and amused) crowds at both.

Organizers: Joshua Drew, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry; E. Christopher Parsons, University of Exeter

Networking is the most essential skill for any young professional, especially those in the sciences. The academic arena is saturated with bland conversations and countless emails—interpersonal interactions have become an early-career scientists most valuable currency. This workshop is designed for those who attended this conference hoping to forge fresh connections and leave with new leads. It will sharpen the tools scientists and conservationists need to efficiently communicate, navigate collaborations, and fundraise. Participants in this workshop will learn how to package their accomplishments and skills, craft concise correspondence to elicit responses from partners, funders, and advisors, and, critically, develop powerful thirty-second pitches on their research and interests. With better tools and a strong networking strategy you will be a better professional and, more importantly, a better scientist. Because you never know when you’ll wind up in an elevator alongside your next opportunity.

Organizers: Sara Kross & Michael Levin, Columbia University

For a long time, ecological communities have been subject to human pressures. However, these pressures usually occurred over relatively long periods, which allowed ecologists to collect and analyze data, detect changes in biodiversity, and suggest actions to reverse trajectory when necessary. The last decades have witnessed rapid and severe changes in landscape configuration that cause long-term impacts on biodiversity. These impacts might not be reversible by the time their effects on biodiversity are detected. Therefore, methods to forecast biodiversity changes are urgent for conservation planning. In this workshop, attendees will implement simple simulations and mechanistic models to predict biodiversity change under several disturbance scenarios (see Dri et al. 2021 - Biological Conservation). These methods have become available due to an increase in computational power, data availability, and statistical advances. However, they are still not in the toolbox of most conservation ecologists. Attendees will use the R program to create their own models, therefore most of the workshop will be based on hands-on activities. By creating a model, attendees will learn the theoretical and statistical backbone of mechanistic ecological models and how these relate to classical correlative models (regression, structural equation models, etc.). Working knowledge of R programming required.

Organizer: Cristian Dambros, Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil

This session will be an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own academic and work history while exploring future directions, developing skills in career planning, networking, and self-promotion, and gaining a toolset for creating and holding space for themselves in the workplace. Interested in industry? Aching for academia? Never gonna give up non-profits? Pretty sure you're perfect for policy? Wooed by science writing? Then bring your curious self to our workshop where we'll do hands-on self-assessment activities, discuss varied options in conservation career pathways, and share in small-groups about the challenges and rewards of the work we aspire to do. And don't forget: the more, the merrier! We invite senior scientists and practitioners to speak about their experiences, post-docs and graduate students to group-share their goals, and undergraduates & high schoolers to discuss their developing ideas. All you need is a notebook, pen, and your creative mind – group activities, games and worksheets are on us.

Organizers: Mary Blair, American Museum of Natural History; Christian Rivera, University of Florida; Alex Moore, Princeton University