Conservation and Environment at the Forefront of Businesses

At last the world is waking up to the preciousness of our natural resources!

With the ever-increasing trend to reduce waste and emissions, increase energy efficiency and minimise practices that may threaten our natural resources, more and more organisations are realising the importance of environmental management and implementing environmental initiatives as core values into their business plans.

In Order to Protect It, You Need to Understand It!

• Learn to manage conservation in different environments.
• Explore conservation issues and strengthen your knowledge of the environment
• Self paced 100 hr course, provides a credit toward a range of longer study programs.
• For people working in conservation or environmental areas, or anyone with a passion for sustainability.

The course reviews basic ecology including topics in water and soil conservation, and places these topics in historical perspective by considering the impact humankind has had on the environment in modern times.  Environmental problems such as pollution and land degradation are explored, followed by a more in-depth look at issues of animal, marine and vegetation conservation.

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. An Introduction To Ecology
   • Spaceship Earth
   • Conservation; Use of Resources, ecological value, economic value, genetic diversity
   • Overkill
   • Urbanisation
   • Basic Ecology
   • The Ecosystem
   • Constituents for the Ecosystem
   • Ecological Concepts
   • The Web of Life; climate, producers, consumers, decomposers The Food Web
   • Habitat and Niche
   • Humans in the Environment
   • Energy Flow
   • Imbalances
   • The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming
   • Climate Change
   • El Nino
   • International Efforts to Counter Climate Change; IPCC, UNFCC, Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen Summit, Worldwatch Institute, etc
   • Terminology
2. A Perspective On Environmental Problems
   • History of Conservation
   • Natural Resources; Renewable, Non Renewable
   • Goals of Conservation
   • History from Industrial Revolution to WWII
   • WW2 and Post War Period
   • International Conservation
   • Deforestation
   • Loss of Agricultural Land
   • Loss of Biodiversity Endangered Water Supplies
   • Exhaustion of Non Renewable Resources
   • Political and Economic Issues of Conservation
   • Environmental Damage in Free Economies
   • Pollution in Planned Economies Supply of Resources
   • Limits to Growth
3. Pollution and Industry Effects On The Environment
   • Nature and Scope of Pollution
   • Industrial Pollution
   • Types of Pollutants
   • Effects of Pollution
   • Nuclear Pollution
   • Sick Building Syndrome
   • Asbestos Fibre
   • Urbanisation
   • Energy Alternatives
   • Deforestation
   • Nuclear Energy, Hydro Power, Solar Energy, Wind, Waste Power
4. Water and Soil
   • Introduction
   • Dams
   • River Catchments
   • Wetlands
   • Water Pollution
   • Recycling
   • Desalination
   • Water Environments
   • The Hydrological Cycle; Infiltration, Rainfall, Evaporation, Effective Rainfall, etc
   • Water and Plant Growth
   • Keeping Water Clean
   • Sewerage Treatment
   • Soil; pH, texture, structure
   • Land and Soil Degradation;
   • Loss of soil fertility
   • Erosion
   • Salinity
   • Soil compaction
   • Soil acidification
   • Build up of dangerous chemicals
5. Vegetation Conservation and Management
   • Value of Trees
   • Commercial Value of Trees
   • Rainforests
   • Forest Systems and Biomass
   • Forest Conservation
   • Trees and the Environment
   • Environmental consequences of Deforestation
   • Afforestation
   • Classification of Forests
   • Desertification
   • Acid Rain
   • Environmental Weeds
   • Strategies for Preservation of Native Grasslands
6. Animal Conservation & Management
   • The Human Animal
   • Urbanisation
   • Wildlife
   • Threatened Species
   • Invasive Species
   • Wildlife Management; approaches, preservation, conservation, goals
   • Wildlife Habitats
   • Water Management for Wildlife
   • Wildlife Surveys
7. Marine Conservation and Management
   • Estuaries
   • Fisheries; stock management, assessment, biomass, stock management methods
   • Conservation of Sandy Shores
8. The Future
   • Tourism and the Environment
   • Ecotourism
   • Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD)
   • Framework for ESD

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Describe the nature and scope of ecology.
• Describe environmental problems and their causes.
• Develop a brief introduction to pollution and its effect on the environment and conservation.
• Discuss relationships between water and soil and their effects on conservation and the environment, and how they can be used and managed.
• Investigate the techniques of vegetation management used in a range of situations.
• Identify the methods used to monitor and manage natural animal populations and land areas for sustainable species continuance.
• Identify the methods used to monitor and manage natural marine populations for sustainable species continuance.
• Describe the role of Ecologically Sustainable Development policies in future environment management.

What You Will Do

• Describe ecological processes and associated sustainable management techniques.
• Investigate a specific environmental problem and provide possible solutions.
• Evaluate the relationship between industry and pollution.
• Discuss principles of water and soil management.
• Select a specific type of plant that is endangered or an environmental problem and submit a case study.
• Explain animal conservation strategies, including protection legislation, breeding programs and habitat conservation.
• Discuss a specific issue that applies to marine conservation.
• Develop profiles of three different conservation and/or environment lobby group organisations and procedures used in promoting their cause.

Non-renewable Resources

Resources such as minerals, fossil and nuclear fuels. These resources are present in fixed amounts, and once they have been used, they do not regenerate.

Natural resources are not limited to the land, they include other elements of the environment, such as oceans, tidal lands, and even the air and the atmosphere.

Resources and their use are very intimately interrelated. For example, a forest contains timber, a valuable economic commodity. However, in its natural state, a forest can:

• serve as a watershed;
• stop or reduce the erosion of soil
• provide a habitat for wildlife
• provide a recreational area
• help lower regional water tables (which can help reduce the likelihood of salinity problems occurring);
• affect the local climate (e.g. some tall trees literally have their heads in the clouds – moisture condenses onto their foliage dripping to the ground, thereby increasing the amount of moisture reaching the ground).

The obvious effect of cutting a forest is to destroy the forest, but there are other, often more serious effects that can follow on from that forest destruction (e.g. loss of habitat for wildlife, erosion, etc.).

A paramount principle of conservation is that the use of any resource requires consideration of what the impact will be on other resources and the entire environment.

The Goals of Conservation

• Maintenance of the essential ecological processes and life support systems. This ranges from the global cycle of nitrogen, carbon-dioxide and water, to the localised regeneration of soil, the recycling of nutrients, and the cleansing of waters and the air.
• Preservation of genetic diversity.
• Assurance that the use of the ecosystems such as grazing lands and forests is sustainable.
• Use of non-renewable resources should ensure that minerals are used conservatively, and where possible recycled. In addition, mineral mining should have the least possible adverse impact on the quality of the environment and other resources.

What is needed to succeed in Conservation and Environmental Management?

The conservation and environmental Industry is changing faster than ever; and will continue to change; and for a successful career you need to be adaptable to these ongoing changes as your career moves forward.

Success in conservation and environmental management is not just a matter of being able to do the job. It is also very much dependent upon the attitude you have and the decisions you make. To be successful, you will need passion, motivation and tenacity to do whatever it takes to succeed.

It is important to make "connections" with industry professionals and remain "connected" to gain as much knowledge as possible to facilitate a successful career.

Why choose our course?

It is an "experiential based" course; designed to connect you with a variety of industry professionals, while exploring the nature and scope of managing environments.

The available course tutors are skilled professionals who are fully qualified in the various subject areas. The combination of their qualifications and many years of actual practical experience, will benefit you greatly as you work through the course.

Where Can This Study Take Me?

• Land regeneration
• Environmental impact assessment
• Energy activity (wind farms, energy from waste)
• Oil and gas and minerals
• Infrastructure
• Contaminated land (remediation, site investigation)
• Water
• Waste management
• Drought management
• Flood risk
• Environmental security
• Nuclear
• Fracking
• Biogas
• Supply chain management
• Energy management\
• Energy auditors
• Resource management
• Climate change
• Climate adaptation
• Compliance management
• Reputational risk
• Training