Welcome to the Biodiversity Science and Management course.
How can we reverse the decline in species, habitats and ecosystems? Is the government interested? What is more important: climate change or land use change? And what tools can we use to mitigate impacts from either?
The planet’s biodiversity, comprising individuals, species, habitats and ecosystems, is threatened. The main threats are man-made and include hunting, disease spread, climate change and changes in land use and management. In this module, you will work with academics that are actively researching biodiversity, its trends and its threats to find answers to these questions. Learning activities include lectures that will (1) Introduce you to a selected set of methods and approaches that can be used to guide policy and decision-making on biodiversity conservation, (2) Highlight a set of key challenges – from local to global scales – for biodiversity conservation, and (3) Introduce selected relevant policies targeted at conserving biodiversity. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the topic and the need to be able to clearly communicate evidence, you will be trained in leading discussions and and contributing to debates around conservation challenges. These will be implemented in group-based interactive workshops and practicals.
The aim of this module is to equip you with the ability to critically evaluate evidence and policies that exist to aid biodiversity conservation. Topics previously covered in the module include invasive species and disease spread, human:wildlife interactions and potential mitigation solutions, meta-analysis for critical assessment of the evidence underlying policies and practical challenges in policy making.