EE (NS) 354 TROPICAL RAINFOREST MANAGEMENT STUDIES compares and contrasts the ecological, geographical, social, economic and historical factors that have shaped natural resource management in Australia and New Zealand. Gain an understanding of the drivers of species extinctions and current conservation problems including management of endangered species. In both countries, students examine the influence of fragmentation on abiotic and biotic attributes of forest communities during field excercises and will be able to identify management techniques with regards to biological systems, national boundaries, and political structures.

EE(NS) 355 TECHNIQUES FOR RAINFOREST RESEARCH includes a wide range of lectures and hands-on field activities that will concentrate on developing management recommendations for reforestation practices on the Tablelands of Australia. We will explore the ecological roles, environmental services, and economic benefits of tropical rainforests. Examine the structure and function of Australian tropical rainforests and the roles that humans have played, and are playing, in current forest dynamics. Examine reforestation applications on the Tablelands: the goals, techniques, successes, and the failures. Finally we will develop and maintain an actual rainforest restoration project.

EE (NS) 352 SUSTAINING TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS: BIODIVERSITY, CONSERVATION AND COMMUNITY provides students with practical field skills necessary to develop and participate in on-going, long-term, community and tropical ecosystem-based research projects. Students will be introduced to the ecological, economic and natural resource management issues that surround protected area and tourism management, parks and people relations and biodiversity assessment and protection in national parks and surrounding areas—with the intent of exploring sustainable development and management strategies.

EE (NS) 350 COMMUNITY WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT introduces students to wildlife management concepts and field skills to investigate the human-wildlife conflict dynamic present in Kenya. This course explores the potential for re-thinking wildlife as a source of income generation, rather than as a competitor for space and water and/or as a threat to human endeavor—which may provide an alternative and sustainable form of human-wildlife co-existence and land-use option. We will explore possible commercial uses of wildlife such as game cropping, regulated sport hunting, and ecotourism. We will then compare the potential benefits of utilizing wildlife with alternative land-use options such as agriculture.

IH 707 FIELD PRACTICUM IN PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
Intensive 5-week field-based course is conducted in Kenya among Maasai community. Participants get community based hands-on experience in designing and implementing a household health survey; in analyzing data and preparing a report. Participants present and discuss survey findings with community leaders to identify follow-up health discussion, and supervise and coordinate field visits in collaboration with an indigenous NGO with community-based health programs in Maasailand.

EE (NS) 356 PRESERVING COASTAL DIVERSITY: SEA TURTLES AND BAY RESOURCES exposes students to the relationship between the decline in biodiversity and the health of the Magdalena Bay ecosystem. In this course, we will identify the most critically threatened areas in Bahía Magdalena as the essential first step in designing a strategy for protecting these resources. Lectures and field exercises will cover topics such as integrated coastal zone management, sea turtle protection, ecological economics, Mexican history and society, coastal ecology and fisheries management. The research component of the course will concentrate on the threatened green turtle, which uses Bahía Magdalena for both breeding and feeding habitat.

EE (NS) 351 MARINE PROTECTED AREAS: MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES AND POLICIES will focus on lectures, field exercises and other activities that enable us to understand how the Caicos Bank ecosystem works, it's resource development potential, the threats facing these resources, and the role of marine parks in protecting and enhancing these resources and their critical habitats. Particular emphasis will be given to commercially important resources such as conch and lobster stocks. Our project findings will contribute towards developing marine parks policy, management plans, and innovation and technology transfer to assist in the management of marine protected areas.