FBL 304: Ecological Restoration

Subject Ante and Title: FBL 304 Ecological Restoration

Subject status:                       Elective

Credits rating:                       7.5

Time distribution:

Lectures:                     30 hours

Tutorials:                     15 hours

Practical:                     10 hours

Assignments:               10 hours

Independent study:     10 hours

Prerequisites: FBL 201, FBL 205

Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the principles and approaches to restoration and management of degraded landscapes.
  2. Design and implement small-scale restoration projects.

Contents: Land degradation processes and problems in the tropics. The concept of ecological restoration. Principles and approaches to restoration. Environmental, philosophical, and ethical aspects of restoration, and the choice of approach. Individual species restoration, restoration of plant communities and ecological groups, restoration of ecological processes. Designing restoration programmes. Small and large scale restoration programmes. Quantitative methods in ecological restoration.

Required readings

  1. Groom, M.J., Meffe, G.K. and Carroll, C.R. (2006). Principles of conservation biology. 3rd edition. Sinaeur Associates, Inc. Publishers, Massachussets, USA.
  2. Koyabashi, S., Turnbull, J.W., Toma, T., Mori, T. Majid, N.M.N.A. (Eds.) (1989). Rehabilitation of tropical forest ecosystems, workshop proceedings, Bogor, Indonesia, CIFOR.
  3. Sunderland, W.J. (2000). The conservation handbook: research, management and policy. Blackwell Science, U.K.

Recommended readings

  1. Fikret B, Colding,J and Folke, C eds. (2003). Navigating Social-Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change. Cambridge UniversityPress.
  2. Pinkaew, L. (2002) Redefining Nature: Karen Ecological Knowledge and the Challenge to the Modern Conservation Paradigm. Chennai: Earthworm Books. Cambridge UniversityPress.
  3. Grim, J. A. (2001) Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community. Cambridge: Harvard University Press