Masterclass: The Clark Wildlife Conservation Consulting Team

• Synopsis: The Wildlife Conservation Seminar is a course run jointly by Clark Geography faculty [Sangermano and Rogan] and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). WCS is a prominent global wildlife conservation organization whose goal is to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions, home to more than 50% of the planet's biodiversity. Every year students in the seminar consult for WCS to deliver practical conservation solutions for a predetermined conservation project. Recent projects have involved the development of environmental baselines for protected areas around the world to track habitat degradation due to bushmeat poaching, using satellite imagery and spatial modelling. The products of the seminar include maps of protected areas highlighting the greatest threats to biodiversity. These products are used by WCS staff to enhance their conservation goals in the field. The masterclass will present examples, from 8 years of Clark-WCS collaboration, of the conservation challenges posed by WCS and the GIScience solutions delivered by the 'Clark Consulting Team'. The examples include: Mapping Bison habitat suitability on Native American and privately-owned lands in Montana, USA, and Establishing Baselines for the Sustainable Wildlife Management Program.

This link provides an overview of the Clark-WCS research collaboration:

https://clarknow.clarku.edu/2019/12/09/clark-students-use-satellite-technology-to-protect-the-planets-creatures-starting-with-the-mightiest/

• Instructors: John Rogan and Florencia Sangermano
• • Bio: Florencia Sangermano holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography from Clark University and a B.Sc./M.Sc. in Biology from Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina. Her research focuses on climate and land cover change impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity through the lens of geospatial analysis, with the objective of supporting conservation planning and ecosystems management.

                    Before joining the Graduate School of Geography, she worked at Clark Labs developing methods to facilitate the analysis and modeling of changes in climate and land cover, which are implemented within the IDRISI/Terrset software. She also worked as consultant to assess IFC PS-6 standards on biodiversity offsets and providing capacity building through training workshops in North America, South America, and Europe.

                   Florencia is the lead organizer of the Central Massachusetts chapter of the Society of Conservation GIS, bringing together local students and practitioners interested in the applications of spatial analysis to conservation.

• Bio: John Rogan is a Professor of Geography at Clark University. He received his PhD in Geography from UC Santa Barbara. His research involves the application of remotely sensed data and GIS models to study the impacts of land change on wildlife habitat, fire regimes, indigenous communities and urban heat island effects. He coordinates Clark's Human Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) Program, and the MSGIS Advanced Degree Program. https://www.clarku.edu/departments/hero-program/

• Registration Link:https://gradapply.clarku.edu/register/?id=552f9581-fc44-4a76-9877-6ad08dcd73c4