A growing number of environmental professionals are realizing that equitable and meaningful engagement of local community members in the development of programming is essential for catalyzing the durable, long-term action needed to conserve biodiversity. Many who attempt to co-design programs with (not for) communities find that choosing the most effective strategies to accomplish this task is crucial and can oftentimes feel daunting. In this webinar, we will identify 5 psychological principles professionals can use as guideposts and describe how participatory research strategies have been effectively implemented by organizations to engage their surrounding communities in the co-design of locally relevant conservation programming.