Challenges
& Issues in African Nature Conservation and
Sustainable Development
UVM Summer Course (3 credits)
Syllabus
[Draft]
This
interdisciplinary course examines the interface between
nature conservation, resource exploitation, and sustainable, or
community
development approaches in Africa. We will discuss past and present
biocentric
and anthropocentric approaches to conservation and their successes and
failures
in Africa and the divergence between the objectives of large
international
conservation organizations and local needs. What does it means to
protect
nature for people who are under constant economic and educational
constraints,
or live in outright poverty? There
will be at least one guest speaker from a conservation or development
project
in Africa.
Course
Codes:
BIOL
195 (60966), ANTH
196 (61038)
Credit
Hours: 3
Day(s)/Time:
MTWR
/ 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Start/End
Dates: 18
May
- 12 June 2009
Location:
67
Votey Bldg
Instructor:
Jan
Decher PhD, Department of Biology, University of
Vermont, 302 Marsh Life Sciences
phone: 802
656
0705, e-mail: Jan.Decher@uvm.edu
Office Hours:
Monday,
Wednesday, Friday 2:30-4:30 PM
Suggested
Prerequisites
for UVM students:
BIOL 002 - Principles
of Biology, or BIOL 006 - Evolutionary Biology
or: GEOG 002 - World
Natural Environments, or GEOG 051 - Africa
or: ENVS 002 -
International Environmental Studies, or ENVS
174 Ð Natural
Areas Conservation
& Stewardship
or: ANTH 179 -
Environmental Anthropology, or ANTH 162 - Cultures
of Africa.
Course Website: UVM
Blackboard.
Access: mid-May 2009
Student Work Load: Student
will be
expected to read 3-4
online articles or book chapters for each Unit, take online reading
quizzes,
and prepare a concise research paper/presentation.
Grading (300 Pts.):
Grades will be based on
in-class and
online course participation
(60
pts), 12 online reading quizzes (120 pts), a paper/presentation
proposal (25 pts) and
completed final paper/presentation relating to, or expanding one of the
topics
covered in the course (75 pts), and a hands-on biodiversity exercise
(20 pts).
Tentative Outline:
Unit 1 Ð The
Preservationist Approach in Africa
Audiovisual:
Serengeti shall not die (B.
& M. Grzimek, 1960)
Unit 2 Ð The
Anthropocentric Approach. IUCN/UNEP/WWFÕs World Conservation
Strategy (1980) and
Caring for the
Earth (1991).
Unit 3 Ð Making
Wildlife pay for itself Ð game
ranching, game tourism etc.
Audiovisual:
Nazinga Game Reserve (Burkina
Faso).
Unit 4 Ð The Bushmeat
Crisis - Hunter's luxury or important
Protein Source
Audiovisual:
Say no to Bushmeat (Cons.
Intern.
2002)
Unit 5 Ð
Myth
and Reality in the Rain Forest
Audiovisual:
Liberia (5 min, CI), Gabon-
The Last Eden (NGS 2007)
Unit 6 Ð
Mining
and Conservation in Africa
Audiovisuals:
Simandou (RioTinto) and: When Silence is Golden
Unit 7 Ð ÒMisreading
the African landscapeÓ - Indigenous
Conservation Practices.
Audio-Visual: Second
Nature
Unit 8 Ð
Sacred
Groves - Traditional Forest Conservation and its future
Unit 9 Ð Faith-based
Conservation & Development
Audiovisual:
Introducing A Rocha (7 min).
Unit 10 Ð Conservation
and Globalization
Audiovisual:
A Kalahari Family. Part 5: Death by
Myth (J. Marshall)
Unit 11ÑEcotourism in
Africa.
Unit 12 Ð Climate
Change and Conservation in Africa
Unit 13 Ð Conservation
and Economics in Africa
(Guest
lecture: Michel Masozera,
WCS Rwanda
& UVM Gund Institute)
Unit 14 Ð
Biodiversity Monitoring in Africa Ð Simulated ÒFieldÓ Exercise.
Recommended Book:
J.
Igoe,
Conservation and Globalization
(UVM Bookstore)
InstructorÕs
Bio
Jan Decher is a
German research associate at the University
of VermontÕs Department of Biology.
His research specialty is the zoogeography, ecology, and conservation
of
West African small mammals. He
spent part of his childhood (1970-73) in Ghana. In 1990 he
returned to Ghana for his dissertation research
on small mammal ecology and conservation on the Accra Plains, working
in a Game
Reserve and two sacred groves. At
that time he developed a special interest in traditionally and
religiously
motivated conservation.
More recently he has worked in West
Africa as a small mammal
survey consultant for Conservation International (Washington D.C.), and
the
environmental firms Nippon Koei UK, and SNC Lavalin (Montreal) where he
gained
insights into the challenges of timber exploitation and forest
protection in
C™te d'Ivoire, the involvement of farming and cocoa producing villages
inside
forest reserves designated "Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas"
in Ghana, the social and environmental impact of a large hydroelectric
power
project in Sierra Leone, and the conflict between international mining
corporations and the protection of unique montane habitats in Guinea.