Environment General Courses (ENVIRON)
graduate level, taught in Durham
298.48. Ecology & Management
of Protected Areas
Spring 2008
2 units
Instructor: Jennifer Swenson
Catalogue description: Examines ecological
aspects of protected areas management. Protected
areas pose a unique management challenge in
terms of their design and the ecological preservation
of larger scale processes over a finite area.
Includes investigation of different ecological
stresses (e.g. human presence, resource extraction,
climate change) both inside and outside protected
area boundaries.
Details: Preference given to 2nd year
MEM students, no prerequisites, instructor permission
required, 30 students limit.
Course Information: The class will meet
twice a week for 1 hour 40 minutes each meeting.
Class will consist of a weekly set of readings
from diverse sources, lecture, in-class discussion
relating to a key article or topic of the week,
guest speakers and multi-media presentations.
Grading will be based on weekly (600 word) thought-essays
(50%), a research paper (40%) and participation
in discussions (10%). For those of you enrolled
in both sections of this course, in terms of
your research paper, I encourage you to select
a place (protected area or similar) and a topic
that may be continued and bolstered during the
2nd protected areas course.
Paper assignment: Choose a protected
area, and an ecological aspect of its management
that is interesting or controversial because
of its protected status and examine it in depth
(10-15 pages).
Note: This course will actually terminate
the last week in February, and Professor Healy’s
ENVIRON 275S will start March 3.
Syllabus
Week |
Subject |
1
Jan 9
(1 meeting) |
- Ecological issues of protected
area selection and management
|
2 Jan
14 |
- Historical aspects of park design,
IUCN levels of protection – Guest speaker
Bob Healy
- Ecology of islands (meta populations,
biogeography theory, matrix, SLOSS)
|
3
Jan 21 |
- Extrinsic disturbances & ecological
dynamics (e.g.: climate change, disease,
fire, exotic species, water quality)
|
4 Jan
28 |
- Intrinsic disturbances & ecological
dynamics (e.g.: trails & roads, poaching,
illegal logging & settlement, edge
effects)
|
5
Feb 4 |
- Success of alternate protection strategies
(e.g. easements, indigenous areas, land
use planning, ecosystem services)
- Landscape ecology and reserve design
(more depth design theory, fragmentation,
connectivity etc.)
|
6
Feb 11 |
- Spatial tools for protected area management
and monitoring (state of the art GIS,
GPS, remote sensing, challenges, also
developing nations)
|
7
Feb 18 |
- Site prioritization methods
- Case Study: Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
|
8
Feb 24 |
- Case Study: Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
- Synthesis; Papers due
|
Example list of readings for the week of February
4:
Success of alternate protection strategies
Oliveira, Paulo J. C., Gregory P. Asner, David
E. Knapp, Angélica Almeyda, Ricardo Galván-Gildemeister,
Sam Keene, Rebecca F. Raybin, Richard C. Smith
2007. Land-Use Allocation Protects the Peruvian
Amazon. Science 317: 1233-1236.
D. Nepstad,S. Schwartzman,B. Bamberger, M. Santilli,
D. Ray, P. Schlesinger, P. Lefebvre, A. Alencar,
E. Prinz, Greg Fiske, And Alicia Rolla. 2006.
Inhibition of Amazon Deforestation and Fire by
Parks and Indigenous Lands. Conservation
Biology Volume 20, No. 1, 65–73
Landtrust.org: What is a Conservation Easement?
(2 pgs)
http://landtrust.org/ProtectingLand/EasementInfo.htm
R. Levin. 6 Basic Steps to Conveying a Conservation
Easement (1pg.)
http://www.privatelandownernetwork.org/plnlo/sixsteps.asp
Landscape ecology and reserve design
Soulé, M.E., Mackey, B.G., Recher, H.F., Williams,
J.E., Woinarski, J.C.Z., Driscoll, D., Dennison,
W.C., and M.E. Jones. 2006.The role of connectivity
in Australian conservation. In Connectivity
Conservation (ed. K.R. Crooks, and M. Sanjayan),
p649-675. Cambridge University Press. |
