Session 1 (02 September)
William Sutherland – How to carry out a thesis or conservation project?
Some conservation research programmes are unsuccessful due to unpredictable circumstances such as illness, unusual weather or unforeseeable political problems. Many Page 1. others could never be successful as they were poorly planned. A small amount of sensible planning can make considerable differences. In this workshop we will use a series of exercises to demonstrate a process called reverse planning.
Rhys Green – Planning research on endangered species
The workshop is about the design of endangered species research when a species is declining rapidly, there is little available information and something has to be done quickly. Sometimes the population of an endangered species seems to be declining rapidly but not much is known about why. How can scientific research help? How can you design a research programme to address important practical questions quickly enough to make a difference? In this workshop, some real-life examples from endangered bird conservation will be examined to see what kinds of research are practical and useful and what can go wrong. There will be exercises in which you will design a research programme based upon very limited information.
Tibor Hartel – The importance of traditional and modern knowledge types in managing high cultural and natural value landscapes.
Session 2 (03 September)
Julia Marton-Lefevre and Miklós Persányi – Communicating Science to Influence Policy
William Sutherland – Use of evidence-based conservation
Evidence-based conservation provides a means of evaluating, reviewing and disseminating global information to improve conservation practice. In this workshop we will describe the principles of evidence-based conservation, how it can be used to improve practice and how you can participate.
Ágnes Kalóczkai and Barbara Mihók – Conservation and society - how to grab the social side of conservation
Conservation biologists need to acquire knowledge and skills to explore the social context of biodiversity conservation issues in order to contribute to a socially accepted (or at least manageable) conservation agenda. However, students in conservation programs rarely meet social science concepts and methodologies during their studies, not to mention research experience in these areas. In this workshop participants receive a short and pragmatic introduction regarding the different approaches of natural and social science. Following the conceptual and theoretical considerations, a toolbox for further orientation in qualitative and quantitative methods will be presented to help research orientation of the participants.
Ferenc Jordán – Network analysis: tools for systems-based conservation
In this workshop, I overview the state-of-the-art applications of network analysis in studying animal social networks, food webs and landscape graphs. The most important techniques of network analysis will be illustrated and their applications will be discussed. From database management to network construction and from network analysis to visualization we will see the key issues and the most important advancements in the field. The participants will be actively involved in finding solutions for a concrete problem.