Reversing the Red

More than 172,000 species have been assessed through the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) global Red List. Alarmingly, roughly a third are considered threatened with extinction. Recently, the Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) joined zoos, aquariums, governments and conservation organizations around the world to celebrate “Reverse the Red” Day on Feb. 7, the IUCN’s annual event to highlight strategies that are recovering species and halting extinctions.

Reversing this extinction crisis requires effective conservation plans, but planning can be complex. To implement effective planning, there is a growing need to train conservation leaders, governments, non-government organizations, zoos, aquariums, botanic gardens and civil society groups to strategically and collaboratively plan for species conservation. The IUCN Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG) – part of the IUCN Species Survival Commission – was formed to save threatened species by increasing the effectiveness of conservation efforts worldwide. In support of the IUCN’s mission to “Reverse the Red,” the DZS is proud to partner with the IUCN CPSG.

In recent years, three DZS staff members have completed CPSG’s Facilitating Species Conservation Planning Workshops (FSCPW) training course, thanks in part to our partnership with the CPSG and a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to support Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) members’ participation. Through this seven-week intensive online course with other trainees from around the world, our staff have learned how to design and facilitate effective conservation planning processes to aid in the recovery of species. The FSCPW training course follows the CPSG’s Species Conservation Planning Principles and Steps – a document that has combined 40 years of collaborative species conservation planning to develop seven underlying principles and eight process steps. The goal of this document is to teach how these principles and steps can be put into practice by providing the necessary tools to design and facilitate effective species conservation planning.

Staff members David Dimitrie (Director of Conservation), Evin Luehr (Senior Humane Education Specialist), and David Vardukyan (Amphibian Zookeeper) all recently completed FSCPW training in 2024 and 2025. This training is instrumental in many key aspects of species protection at the DZS, as it has provided our team with a comprehensive understanding of conservation planning and the tools necessary to bring continued positive change to our conservation initiatives and partnerships. For example, this course helped shape the development of DZS’ new Conservation Action Plan – which will guide DZS conservation work into the future – while providing support to several of our key conservation initiatives – such as our work to protect and restore populations of some of the most threatened and endangered amphibians on the planet, including the striped newt of the southeastern United States and the Panamanian golden frog. These lessons will also continue to play a role in our leadership in AZA’s Saving Animal From Extinction (SAFE) programs.

Building on this work, our team will continue their training this year through two additional IUCN training courses: CPSG’s Ex situ Conservation Assessment course to better understand how zoo-based management of animal populations can be a recommended component of a species’ conservation plan, and CPSG’s Mentorship Development Program to receive one-on-one mentorship and hands-on conservation planning facilitation opportunities with CPSG. Through this dedication to continued training, the DZS is committed to conservation of species at home and around the globe. At the DZS, we work every day to ignite positive change for animals and nature, and through partnerships such as the IUCN CPSG, we will continue to inspire hope to protect wild species and their habitats, restore ecosystems and reverse the loss of biodiversity worldwide.  

To learn more about the IUCN’s Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG): https://www.cpsg.org/about-us/our-mission 

To learn more about the CPSG Facilitating Species Conservation Planning Workshops training course: https://www.cpsg.org/our-work/capacity-building/courses/facilitating-species-conservation-planning-workshops