Course Code/Course Name 

Dates

Venue

APES7000

Conserving Biodiversity: Foundations

11 - 22 February

Room 113, Biology Building, East Campus

APES7001

Conserving Biodiversity: Frontiers

22 July - 2 August

Room 115, Biology Building, East Campus

APES7007

Adaptive Management in Conservation and Catchment Management

8 - 19 July

Room 115, Biology Building, East Campus

APES7002

Sustaining Populations & Resources: Foundations

2-12 April

Room 115, Biology Building, East Campus

APES7003

Sustaining Populations & Resources: Frontiers

21 -30 March

Wits Rural Facility

APES7004

Maintaining Ecosystem Processes: Foundations

13-24 May

Room 113, Biology Building, East Campus

APES7005

Maintaining Ecosystem Processes: Frontiers

to be confirmed (April/May/June)

Room 115, Biology Building, East Campus

APES7000 - Conserving Biodiversity: Foundations

This module will address the definition and determination of biodiversity at different levels; threats to biodiversity; benefits and functions of biodiversity to ecosystem processes; practical approaches to biodiversity conservation, and the evaluation and assessment of biodiversity. Excursions to assess practical issues faced by provincial conservation agencies may be included.

APES7001 - Conserving Biodiversity: Frontiers

With easy access to spatial data from various sources, and the reality of conservation planning in the face of biodiversity loss, conservation is becoming an increasingly spatially explicit problem that needs spatially explicit solutions.  This course is designed as an introduction to spatial modelling principles and applications; essentially a peek into the toolbox of tools that are available to conservation practitioners and training in the use of a few of these tools. The first part of the course will focus on the principles and practice of niche modelling, and the second part will deal with remotely sensed data as a common input into niche models.

APES7002 - Sustaining Populations & Resources: Foundations

This unit will outline the application of population ecology theory supported by computer modelling techniques towards sustaining resource populations. Material covered will include alternative models, forms of density dependence, age- and stage- structured matrix models, deterministic vs stochastic simulations, optimal harvest quotas, population viability analysis, herbivore-plant interactions, Markov state models and adaptive management.

APES7004 - Maintaining Ecosystem Processes: Foundations

This module will outline biogeochemical processes, in particular the cycling of nutrients, processes, maintaining soil fertility, influences on primary and secondary production and relevance for ecological sustainability. Consequences of rising atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and global temperature change, for vegetation patterns will be evaluated and modelled.

APES7005 - Maintaining Ecosystem Processes: Frontiers

This unit will address applications of population and resource modelling techniques to the management of herbivore-vegetation systems for conservation or production ends, including habitat suitability assessment, competitive interactions and broader factors governing stability and sustainability.

APES7003 - Sustaining Populations & Resources: Frontiers

This module will address problems of biodiversity conservation in rural communal lands. It will cover the interplay between broad conservation objectives, local uses of resources, and social and development contexts, and will involve a field excursion to Wits Rural Facility in the central lowveld region. The primary objective of this module is to expose MRCB students to the challenges and constraints affecting rural livelihoods and how this influences the perceptions, decisions and actions of various role players.

APES7007 - Adaptive Management in Conservation and Catchment Management

In spite of all the scientific research that has taken place the condition of our water resources, landscapes and biodiversity continue to decline. A major reason for this is poor planning and decision making that is ad hoc, unstructured and in crisis mode. All relevant legislation in RSA and abroad calls for greater public participation in decision making but time and again development is stalled because the process was faulty. All of this disfunction is largely caused by people working in outdated or inappropriate scientific and decision making paradigms. The world is a complex dynamic place and the reductionist and bureaucratic management systems of the past cannot cope with decision making in these circumstances. Adaptive management, in essence a process of learning by doing, is a viable alternative that can deal with changing conditons. This course will explore methods, challenges and examples of using adaptive management approaches to meet conservation and catchment management objectives.In dynamic and heterogenous savannas, traditional management approaches cannot cope with and respond to the changing environment in such way as to ensure successful, long-term management. Adaptive management, in essence a process of learning by doing, is a viable alternative that can deal with these changing environmental conditons. This course will explore methods, challenges and examples of using adaptive management approaches to meet conservation management objectives.