• Inactive for Year: 2024/25

• Module Leader(s): Dr Fabrice Stephenson
• Lecturer: Professor Clare Fitzsimmons, Professor Philip McGowan, Professor Marion Pfeifer, Dr Sarah Coulthard

• Owning School: Natural and Environmental Sciences
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

Protecting and restoring biodiversity and associated ecosystem services and nature’s contributions to people is a central concern of many different organisations, including both government and non-government groups. One tool for conserving species and habitats are Protected Areas (PAs), i.e., clearly defined geographical spaces, recognised, dedicated and managed, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

This module will introduce the key concepts needed to understand protected area management and policy at the national and international level (e.g. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)). Students will gain an understanding of current definitions of protected area (including designations with social-cultural-ecological considerations such as IUCN Green List sites), strategic planning processes and international guidance. Students will gain hands on experience of approaches for designing protected area networks and measuring protected area management effectiveness.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module consists of a mix of lectures and computer-based practical sessions covering three core areas:

1.       An introduction to methods and approaches for estimating spatial patterns in biodiversity using Species Distribution Models (SDMs). In this section, students will be provided with an overview of species ecological niche theory and how estimates from mathematical models (using the statistical software R) can be used to generate spatial estimates of species’ occurrence and abundance. Best practice for using model outputs (including in cases where few data are available) will be provided.

2.       Theoretical and practical experience using Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) tools for identifying effective protected areas. An overview of the classic considerations for protected area design (e.g., representativity, replication, viability, adequacy, connectivity, protection, and best-available evidence) and how these can be considered within systematic conservation planning (SCP) tools (e.g., Marxan and Zonation) will be provided.

3.       Principles and practices of assessing the effectiveness of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. This will include an overview of different protected area types (including designations with social-cultural-ecological considerations such as IUCN Green List sites) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) and how conservation effectiveness is measured (quantitatively and qualitatively) with respect to management and policy objectives.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The course involves a combination of lectures and computer-based practical classes. The lectures will set the context and provide essential knowledge for each topic covered, which will then be put into practice as part of the computer-practical classes. Following lectures, the students will be asked to read and research protected area case studies and international guidance in more detail (using a publication list provided as a basis). This directed reading will also prepare students for the assessment, in which they will be asked to apply the knowledge acquired to critically appraise the approaches used in the computer-based practical classes and design a hypothetical protected area network. Students will work on their own or in groups (depending on the topic) to gather further information and communicate it to each other in a workshop context.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment

Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

There will be two summative assessments, both of which are aligned with the intended knowledge and skill outcomes and the taught material.

The module is fundamentally concerned with giving students the opportunity to develop skills for developing and critically appraising protected areas and OECMs, and applying national and global guidance on when and how these tools can be effective conservation interventions. The module provides practical skills and best practice for using analytical tools (e.g. Zonation) to develop evidence-based and effective protected areas. The assessment is designed to examine this in detail, and will explore both students’ understanding of the practical exercises (written exercise) and how they have synthetised this information to develop and communicate a plan that identifies and justifies a hypothetical protected area network in a case study area (case study report).

Students will complete a formative assessment focussed on presenting outputs from a small group project where they will communicate hypothetical outputs from a protected area to policy makers (practicing translating science for use by policy makers / resource managers). This formative assessment gives students the opportunity to practice communicating the effectiveness of Protected Areas in small groups and receive feedback which can then be used in preparation for the summative assessment.

Reading Lists

• NES8321's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• NES8321's Timetable