These include identifying the problem to be addressed, communicating the need, executing the project and disseminating its result. These areas involve technical skills necessary to carry out the project and appropriate proposal and report writing. These gatherings increasingly provide the means by which techniques and methods are discussed with a wide variety of conservationists in seminars and in one to one tutorials. There are immediate plans for symposia on partridges and pheasants in Nepal, grouse in Finland, quail and cracids in Paraguay and Mexico. Training workshops are invaluable in providing the opportunity for intensive work on new approaches, methods and analysis.
Workshops are typically small offering the chance for considerable interaction between participants.
Areas covered include field techniques in tropical forest, Himalayan forest and tropical grasslands, analysis and interpretation of data and captive husbandry. There are plans for workshops on field techniques and data analysis in Uganda and Nepal. Tailored advisory visits are necessary where considerable detailed discussion and advice are needed to resolve particular issues. Typically these involve periods from about a week to several months working alongside those being trained so that both gain a thorough understanding of the problem and how it might be solved. At present there is a commitment to work with Hanoi Zoo to improve husbandry techniques and we are planning extensive work on report, paper and proposal writing with colleagues in India and China.