The project involves a desk/archive-based, data analysis, lab or field project and written project report on a subject agreed between the student and staff in a field relevant to wildlife conservation. Each student conducts, with assistance, an individual research project or dissertation, which is supervised for the duration of the project by an expert or experts in their respective field(s). The subject will be chosen in T2 and students will submit an initial literature review which will go on to form part of the dissertation at the beginning of T3. There may be opportunities to participate in existing research projects and/or have a placement with an external organisation. Some projects may consist of a series of related studies using different techniques that form chapters in a dissertation.

This module will give students an understanding of how conservation operates from a global to a national scale, including the roles of international bodies, legal and advisory frameworks and NGOs. Students will learn how these cascade into national level frameworks and legislation, and the benefits and drawbacks of these approaches.

It is more important than ever that future environmental scientists are well-equipped with the skills needed to critically assess environmental research. This module will provide you with the key skills required to assess and integrate contemporary literature and to analyse and interpret complex data to become an independent researcher.

This module will address the various methods used for making assessments of populations and communities of organisms and of habitats for conservation work. Students will also learn the important data analysis techniques necessary to draw inference from such data, and how this can lead into evidence-based conservation planning and monitoring. 

This module will deal with ecological principles at both the population and community level. The important theoretical foundations of the subject will be covered, allowing further exploration of how these lead into practical conservation issues and will deal with ecological principles at both population and community level. The important theoretical foundations of the subject will be covered, allowing further exploration of how these lead into practical conservation issues.

Wild animals often live in close proximity to people, and conservation of those animals has important impacts on those people. This module will introduce a series of important topics associated with conservation and society, including a consideration of how successful conservation programmes can be designed in collaboration with local people rather than in conflict with them. 

This module will be taught as a two-week field course based in the Kruger National Park in South Africa and taught with researchers from South African National Parks (SANParks) and allied organisations. Content will include:

• Field exercises learning biodiversity and behavioural monitoring techniques in the KNP
• Assisting researchers with biodiversity assessments for existing long-term monitoring projects in the KNP and the surrounding area (e.g. the SAEON Ndlovu node)
• The history of colonialism and Apartheid in South Africa and how this has created the current conservation landscape
• Inclusive community solutions to local conservation problems