Protecting the world's living natural resources can be a confusing, complex endeavor. With so many threats to the natural world, where do you start? Fortunately, policy makers from 193 countries recently agreed on five major strategic goals to guide their efforts through the year 2020. They also agreed on twenty specific targets to accomplish by 2020. These priority goals and targets drive global nature conservation efforts and frame this course. From ranching, aquaculture, forestry, and sustainable agriculture to cutting edge technologies, the course examines the best and worst of both policy and management. Students who master these topics will maximize not just their career opportunities through 2020, but also their personal contribution to protecting important natural resources.

Learning Objectives

. By the end of the course, you should be able to describe best policy and management practices for the following five topics, which represent the global biodiversity priorities through the year 2020: 1) addressing the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society (Strategic Goal A); 2) reducing the direct pressures on biodiversity and promoting sustainable use (Strategic Goal B); 3) improving the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity (Strategic Goal C); 4) enhancing the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services (Strategic Goal D); and 5) enhancing implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building (Strategic Goal E).