Current concepts and case studies in the sustainable use of wildlife resources, including commercial, recreational, cultural and subsistence harvests.
|Paper title||Harvest Management|
|Teaching period||Second Semester|
|Domestic Tuition Fees (NZD)||$1,333.93|
|International Tuition Fees (NZD)||$5,793.66|
- Teaching staff
- Associate Professor Yolanda van Heezik
Professor Philip Seddon
- Paper Structure
- Broadly, the objectives for the paper relate to viewing harvest management within
the framework of sustainable use of wildlife resources. The paper examines why sustainable
use is considered so important, investigates the components of a sustainable harvest
regime and considers why harvests seem so often to be unsustainable.
Consequently, the paper takes a very wide view of the factors affecting sustainability and is not limited to a biologist's perspective of population regulation and estimation of sustainable yields. Whatever students go on to do - whether research, management, advocacy, etc. - it is important to gain an appreciation of the ways in which scientific perspectives mesh with cultural, social, political and economic factors. Good management is underpinned by the methods and findings of good science, but cannot hope to succeed in isolation from these other factors.
- Teaching Arrangements
- The paper is divided into three sections.
The first considers the various types of harvest and the factors influencing their sustainability; we will decide as a group what those facets are and will formulate our own framework for assessing sustainability of harvest.
The second section involves discussions around your presentations of case studies and topic summaries and those of guest speakers. These sessions will provide an opportunity to refine our thinking about sustainability of harvest and to refine our assessment framework.
The third section is where we put it all together in assessments of harvests chosen by you for your main project.
- Textbooks are not required for this paper.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Global perspective, Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship,
Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Environmental literacy,
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.
- Learning Outcomes
- Harvest Management students will have an understanding of the processes and interactions at work in the management of wildlife harvests and the factors affecting sustainable use.
- Students will be able to gather and analyse information and answer questions about sustainable use and will be able to apply their knowledge to address real-life problems.
- Above all, students will have an appreciation of the need for and an ability to apply critical thinking, scientific rigour and a systematic approach to the management of harvests of naturally renewable wildlife resources.