Conservation (Cons)

Course description

Content

The following themes will be presented:

1. The goals of conservation
- Threats to biodiversity
- What are we trying to protect?
- How do we measure our success or failure? 

2. The biological basis of conservation
- Ecological and behavioural (social) effects of habitat change
- The (in situ and ex situ) conservation of single gene pools
- The conservation of species assemblages
- Taking long term stability into account

3. Practical conservation
- The need for scientific information for management strategies
- How to preserve biodiversity? The need for shortcuts
- Practical harvesting issues in animals and plants
- Human activities and how to select nature reserves and management areas – the need for making priorities
- The advantages and disadvantages of using citizen science to provide data on and highlight conservation issues

Recommended academic qualifications

It is recommended that the participant has taken courses covering Biodiversity, Population Biology and Mathematical Biology, or equivalent.