ABSTRACT
Community workshops have become a standard tool in conservation projects, and if you follow a career in conservation – especially in social aspects of conservation – sooner or later you will need to get to grips with how to run a workshop. Workshops are often used simply for basic consultation and information dissemination, but they can also be a valuable element in a research project. They are used most often in participatory action research (PAR), since they provide a forum where researchers and local people can work together on issues of shared concern (see Section 1.4). Through the use of brainstorming exercises, discussions and more structured exercises, a wealth of information can be generated in a short time based on the perspectives and ideas of the participants, which can then be explored further through the use of other methods.
