Within the COPASI GUI, you can:
* set a species to simulation type 'fixed' so it won't partake in reactions
* assign a kinetic with speed 0 to a reaction, to have it not happen.
to systematically remove species / reactions from a model, I would use scripting, as available with
where you first prepare your model in COPASI, and then reactions, repeating the analysis you want to run to see the differences.
cheers
Frank