About This Site

• Introduction to this web site
• Frequently Asked Questions about this site
• Original introduction published in the Journal of Conservation Biology
• Press Release- updated 11/10/98

Introduction

In the US, Conservation Biology is a fledgling field that is growing rapidly in response to (among other things) the increasing rate of ecological community degradation and habitat loss, as well as species decline and extinction. While a (limited) number of programs addressing conservation themes were available in the past, comprehensive approaches are just emerging. Concomitantly, public interest has increased in a natural resource management philosophy that includes values associated with complex, diverse, and healthy ecosystems.

The program summaries reveal that the institutionalization of curricula in conservation biology varies among graduate schools. Programs run the gamut from full-fledged master's and doctoral degrees to majors, concentrations, emphases, minors and course work. Many of the programs are ensconced in existing biology or natural resources departments; others are components of interdisciplinary programs.

We would like this database to be comprehensive. If you have a program or are aware of a program not currently listed in our system, please go to the on-line forms to enter it, or contact Programs@conbio.net.

Features: Here, Now, and In the Works

At present the database consists of indexed description of over 60 different graduate programs in Conservation Biology and over 500 faculty listed with their research interests, academic affiliations, and contact addresses. The database was originally assemble by soliciting descriptions of graduate programs in conservation biology from (1) universities represented at the 1993 annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology; (2) that were listed in the 1992 Conservation Directory published by the National Wildlife Federation, Washington, D.C.; and (3) that were participating in the national initiative, Integrated Approaches to Training in Conservation and Sustainable Development (Jacobson et al. 1992).

It is our plan that this web site will be a dynamic and always current source of information on conservation biology programs. To this end, we have added hypertext links to all conservation biology programs, their parent departments, and the schools in which they are housed. Additionally, we request that all persons with knowledge about undergraduate and graduate programs that are not listed herein, please contact the Programs Gatekeeper with that information or submit a New Entry Form.

In addition, if an existing entry is out of date, or inaccurate, we request that you fill out those parts of the update form that should be changed or added. Please report any broken or inaccurate links to the Gatekeeper.

About this document and these pages

This document is copyrighted ©1997. Above text and data were originally published in: Conservation Biology. Volume 9, No. 1, February 1995. Reprinted with permission from the Authors, the Journal of Conservation Biology, and Blackwell Scientific Publishing.