Recognising that students on this award have a variety of educational backgrounds, this module will begin with a review and evaluation of those ecological concepts and theories relevant to nature conservation and land management. Examples of topics likely to be covered include: ecological succession, landscape ecology and metapopulation theory, the importance of an historical ecology perspective, `balance of nature? vs disturbance paradigms etc.

We will also discuss the roles of habitat creation and restoration in conservation, including ethical issues; `deep green? perspectives; approaches to the assessment and conservation of biodiversity; species re-introductions and the control of alien species; impacts of global climate change scenarios; ecological economics; and traditional vs evidence-based approaches to conservation. The exact topics covered are likely to vary from year to year to reflect recent developments in the subject area.

This module will incorporate 24 hours of lectures and tutorials in which contentious topics will be discussed. There will normally be ca. 3-hours of guided reading associated with each session, which will often form the basis of the class discussion. The remaining 60 hours of learning time will be spent researching and preparing the coursework assignments, particularly the written report.

A formative assessment (a brief critical review of a paper) is included early on in the module to make students aware of the standards expected in written work at Masters level.

30% - Seen question class test (2 hours) to assess Learning Outcome 1.

70% - Written report (ca. 3000 words) on a specific, negotiated topic, as if commissioned by an external agency
(such as Defra or the Joint Nature Conservation Committee). To assess Learning Outcomes 2 & 3.

Sutherland, W. J. (Ed.) 1998. Conservation Science and Action. Blackwell Science, Oxford.

Useful journals include:
British Wildlife
Biological Conservation
Conservation Biology
Environmental Conservation
Journal of Applied Ecology

There is also a collection of English Nature reports available from the Learning Resource Centre. Any we don?t have can easily be downloaded from English Nature?s website or you can order a hardcopy free of charge in many cases.

Access to library resources, and the internet