Costa Rica 3/10/2023-3/21/2023
BIOL 335 Tropical Conservation Biology (LASC 10)
This course meets once per week starting in January 2023 to discuss assigned readings about biodiversity, what biodiversity is and where biodiversity is greatest and most threatened. We then discuss strategies for conserving biodiversity in the face of competing demands from political and socioeconomic forces. We then discuss why the culture and history of Costa Rica predisposed this country to embrace a conservation ethic and consequently many of the strategies for conservation have been successfully implemented there. All of this preparation sets the stage for a 12-day field trip over March break to see tropical biodiversity in three different habitats (Cloud Forest of Monteverde, Humid forest/tide pools of Cabo Blanco, Dry Forest of Santa Rosa national park) that each use a different conservation strategy. In each location, students will live in small cabanas nestled within the forest. When we return, students present a talk at the Student Academic Conference about conservation biology using their own pictures from the trip. This course is LASC goal area 10 because it studies the intersection between human society and the natural environment.
Contacts: Brian Wisenden (wisenden@mnstate.edu, HA 407-O) and Bee Wisenden (wisendenp@mnstate.edu, HA 407-Q).