The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) offers the Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner Program (CERP). This program will certify qualified ecological restoration practitioners (and practitioners-in-training).
Certification will be based on a combination of:
- Knowledge base (there will be a grandfathering clause during the first 5-year cycle)
- Professional-level experience
- References
- Review and agreement with SER’s ethics and disciplinary policies
- Successful completion of SER e-learning course (estimated at ~90 minutes) on the foundations of ecological restoration
CERP is designed to certify that ecological restoration practitioners meet certain specific qualifications and that they understand the foundations of ecological restoration. Via a continuing education program, CERP is designed to ensure that certified practitioners are up to date on the new and important developments in the field of ecological restoration – both from the scientific and the practical perspectives.
CERP is not designed to certify specific restoration projects. Nor is it designed to certify that any individual restoration practitioner conducts high quality work. At some point in the future we hope to include an auditing component to enable us to certify the quality of people’s work, but until then, this is exclusively a credentialing program.
Applications for certification will be accepted online during two application windows each year (one ending in March and one ending in September). The first application cycle will be open from January-March 2017.
Certification will last 5 years, during which time the certificant must earn a specified number of continuing education credits to renew their certification. As such, SER will be investing more in continuing education beginning in 2017.
SER is also working to develop partnerships with other societies and entities to pre-approve their relevant continuing education workshops or courses for CERP continuing education credits. Continuing education offerings will be open to anyone, whether they are certified/seeking certification or not.