Education and Training Program in Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation

START and the Institute of Resource Assessment, University of Dar es Salaam, with support from the MacArthur Foundation are pleased to announce the 2010 Education and Training Program on Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation in the Albertine Rift Region of Africa. Applications are invited from early to mid-career conservation researchers and practitioners; masters-level graduate students; and university educators currently teaching courses related to conservation and natural resource management. Applicants must be African nationals; priority will be given to applicants from Albertine Rift countries i.e. Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

The program will offer interdisciplinary learning through the use of course modules that allow participants to acquire knowledge and skills in assessing climate change risks to ecosystems and biodiversity, and strategies for their conservation, and through field externship projects whereby participants are able to apply what they have learned in the course to actual conservation efforts in the region. Participants who are university educators will receive focused training in the use and application of distance learning modules on climate change and biodiversity conservation, rather than participating in field externship projects.

Course modules will be offered at Institute of Resource Assessment, University of Dar es Salaam from July 19 - September 3, 2010. Externship projects will commence immediately following completion of coursework, and are anticipated to last approximately two months. Training in distance learning modules will commence on 6 September 2010 and last approximately one week.

The Deadline for Applications is: March 12, 2010