Curriculum Information

This module explores the ecological foundations relating to restoration, examining where, why, what, and how we restore degraded ecological systems. Students will consider the theoretical context of restoration ecology and how this translates to ecological restoration, and consider the practical aspects of planning and implementing landscape-scale restoration, including goal setting, monitoring and evaluation. This will include visits to field sites in different ecosystems and with different restoration approaches and challenges, to demonstrate the real-world challenges faced in the conservation of species and habitats.

Students will be introduced to Environmental Law and policies, to develop a wider understanding of legal practice relevant to wildlife and conservation, and will develop an understanding of Nature Conservation Designations including NNRs, SSSIs, The UK Biodiversity Action Plan, etc., and their role in the protection of environments and restoration practices.  Additionally, students will consider the impact of ecosystem changes on stakeholder wellbeing, local community impacts, ecosystem health and climate impacts (in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals).

Fieldwork activities will allow students the opportunity to consider contemporary ecological restoration challenges and work in a practical setting to gather data to provide a critical analysis and evidence to support the development of informed planning for future restoration actions. Students will gain knowledge in key ecological assessments such as Preliminary Ecological Appraisal, Environmental Impact Assessments and Ecological Impact Assessments, and will have the opportunity through field and practical activities, to practice wildlife/habitat surveying techniques relevant to formal ecological assessments such as PEA or EIA. In order to conduct surveys to professional standards, students will further develop species identification techniques for key taxonomic groups and will be introduced to key advances in wildlife survey techniques and ecological monitoring including DNA barcoding, eDNA and metabarcoding, etc. Students will also consider the role of legislation for licencing related to wildlife and environmental surveying in the UK, such as protected species licences. Students will have the opportunity to act as industry professionals, apply a range of industry standard practical skills, and perform appropriate digital analysis in industry standard software, to visualise their findings to a professional standard.  Students are presented with the opportunity to work in an active, collaborative fashion in the field, and are empowered to adopt different roles in the task to support the collaborative effort.