engleski

School of Conservation Biology : towards education and capacity building in scientifically sound biodiversity conservation in southern Europe

Southern Europe is among European hot-spot regions with high biodiversity and high diversity of political and economical structure of individual states. Reconciliation of biodiversity conservation and modern development in this region, in southeastern transitional countries in particular, is a demanding task and requires specifically trained specialists. Though conservation biology is considered the science of the 21st century and a prerequisite for effective biodiversity conservation, very few university curricula in the region offer specialized courses in conservation biology. In order to continually enhance education and capacity building in the field of scientifically sound biodiversity conservation, from 2005 the Croatian Biological Society has started with organization of an annual international graduate School of Conservation Biology (SCB). Through an intensive 9-days course, SCB gives basics on conservation biology from population to ecosystem levels, including labs and field courses. Through interactive classes, the School provides graduate students with insight in the latest trends, state of the art knowledge and available methodologies/tools in applied researches focused at biodiversity conservation. The impact/success of SCB is analyzed based upon (i) student’ s evaluation, (ii) representation of students from different European countries, and (iii) possibility of students to apply and disseminate obtained knowledge in their work.

biodiversity; conservation; Europe; education

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