Start building the knowledge and applied skills you need to successfully manage protected areas as you prepare to take on a leadership role within the field of parks and protected area management.
What you will learn
Through an integration of social and ecological sciences, you will gain a holistic understanding of protected area values, services, and governance, along with the expertise to operationalize those values through effective planning and management of public use, concessions, finance strategies, community collaboration, and human capacity development.
As our fragile natural environments face increasing pressure, effective conservation will require continually facing new challenges through adaptive management. Protected area planning will become a larger part of regional land use planning, design, and management of biological corridors – all elements which will become more essential for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.
Study in a curriculum developed by expert faculty
CSU’s faculty and associates have been actively engaged in protected area planning for decades at every level – from operational, public use and master planning for small public and private and municipal reserves, to work on national protected area systems and both national and regional corridor planning and gap analyses for some of the most biologically diverse nations in the world.
Department faculty have also participated in management effectiveness studies, both at the individual park and reserve level, and overall evaluations of the work of conservation agencies. Staff and associates of the Center for Protected Area Management strive to be on the cutting edge of protected area good practice research. One such example includes a recent collaborative project with the US National Park Service to examine global good practice in mitigation of sound and light pollution in parks.
