NGO representatives

The Ecology and Conservation of Migratory Birds

This two-week course is designed to capitalize on this expertise to teach conservation professionals and field scientists the most current methods in the research of bird migration including theoretical concepts, field and laboratory methods, data analysis and applied conservation strategies.

Species Monitoring and Conservation: Terrestrial Mammals

This course engages conservation professionals in developing skills, approaches, and solutions applicable to the assessment and monitoring of wild mammal populations including bats and terrestrial mammals of all sizes. The course will progress from components of study design to field data collection, data analysis, and the application of results to conservation and management.

Course participants work to open a mist-net for field sampling of local bats. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services/George Mason University

The curriculum includes:

Animal Movement Analysis for Conservation

Animal movement is critical for maintenance of ecosystem services and biodiversity. The study of complex movement patterns and of the factors that control such patterns is essential to inform conservation research and environmental management. Technological advances have greatly increased our ability to track, study, and manage animal movements. But analyzing and contextualizing vast amounts of tracking data can present scientific, computational, and technical challenges that require scientists and practitioners to master new skills from a wide range of computational disciplines.

Monitoring and Evaluation Course

One of the major aims of the M&E Initiative is to strengthen the planning, monitoring and evaluation skills of project and programme managers at regional and global levels. 

Skilled PM&E facilitators working in Asia, Africa and Latin America developed, over a 5-year period, a core PM&E course for IUCN project managers. This course has been developed and tested in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It provides project managers with the basic concepts and hands-on skills development they need.

Introduction to International Environmental Law

Background

Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) are the predominant legal method for addressing transboundary environmental problems. Nowadays States, particularly least developed  and developing countries, face the challenge of implementing over 300 MEAs with limited technical, financial and human resources. For the adequate application of and compliance with MEAs at national level, there is a need to develop specific capacities on environmental law and raise the level of awareness in the field.