Admission requirements
This course is part of the Minor Sustainable Development. To take part in the course Area Study Sustainability, students must have followed the previous course Big Issues New Answers and succesfully completed Sustainability in Practice.
Description
The Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) of Leiden University runs this course in collaboration with the CERES International Project, an organisation located in Portugal specialising in training interdisciplinary groups of students in the field of sustainability and conservation. Within this course, students will be made acquainted with local sustainability issues in relation to the conservation of its biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides.
In teams students from Leiden University will work on projects to investigate human threats and opportunities for sustainable land management and preservation of the natural environment. CERES is situated within the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina, the largest stretch of the Portuguese coastline that is subject to special protection. Within the vicinity, challenges include the transformation of abandoned plantations to natural forests, (agricultural) water use in the area and its impacts on river systems as well as sustainable tourism and invasive species in the coastal area.
Students will work in small interdisciplinary groups and develop their own research questions, sampling design and data analysis under supervision of staff from CERES and CML. Students will spend 14 days at the CERES location in Portugal to collect and analyse data as well as learn important field skills and communicate their findings to local stakeholders. They will return to the Netherlands to finalise the data analyses and to attend further training and classes to help them produce a story map and data report. The findings will be presented during a final symposium and include a pitch and poster presentation. Prior to travelling to Portugal, the students will prepare their stay, supported by a number of skills workshops and prepare a field talk. In this peer-to-peer teaching, students teach their fellow students on specific challenges in the region.
Each of the research topics will have a natural science/biological component as well as a social science component. Thus, within each of the projects, the research will have a clear transdisciplinary component to exchange views on sustainable use of natural resources with local stakeholder. In addition, each project is expected to combine measurements on impacts on biodiversity and/or ecosystem services with social science research, e.g. through interviews. In combination, these activities will provide the students will an integral view on sustainable use of natural resources.
Course objectives
At the end of the course, students:
Understand the mechanisms through which human society affects biodiversity.
Understand how societal contexts affect our sustainable use of natural resources.
Further their understanding on how the interaction between society and biodiversity can be investigated.
Learn how to develop and execute a research project to investigate biodiversity and sustainability issues from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Know how to quantitatively analyse data collected by field research
Final qualifications:
The student has an overview of the basic scientific concepts to understand the interactions between society, sustainability and biodiversity and to formulate their founded opinion on these matters.
Timetable
From ca. 6 January - 7 February 2025. Exact timing of the course, and programme details will be announced via Brightspace. Dates might change.
You will find the timetables for all courses and degree programmes of Leiden University in the tool MyTimetable (login).
MyTimetable allows you to integrate your timetable with your calendar apps such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other calendar apps on your smartphone. Any timetable changes will be automatically synced with your calendar. If you wish, you can also receive an email notification of the change. You can turn notifications on in ‘Settings’ (after login).
For more information, watch the video or go the the 'help-page' in MyTimetable. Please note: Joint Degree students Leiden/Delft have to merge their two different timetables into one. This video explains how to do this.
Mode of instruction
Lectures, workshops, and excursions introducing the concepts including the societal setting
Project research (research proposal, field research, data analysis and report)
Assessment method
The grade for the course is based on a number of components:
Field talk
Oral presentation(s) on the research done including an outreach event in Portugal as well as a pitch back on campus
Poster presentation
Written report (a story map) and data file
Detailed instructions on each of these components will be provided on Brightspace
Brightspace will be used for communication.
Reading List
The reading list is made available on Brightspace.
Registration
There are a maximum of 15 available places. Scholarships to cover the costs of the excursion are only available for students of Leiden University. Students are advised to join the information session about this course in October during the programme of the Minor Sustainable Development. Here, you will be informed of the registration procedure, and the draft programme and practical matters of the course. In order to have an interdisciplinary group of motivated students participate in this course, a selection will be made of students who register for this course on the basis of their motivation letter and their major studies disciplines. The results of the selection will be announced mid-October.
Registration for the minor Sustainable Development opens May 15 (13:00 hrs) via EduXchange.
Contact
Should you have any questions regarding the registration or the minor in general, please reach out to minor@cml.leidenuniv.nl.
Remarks
This course has some additional costs involved:
The contribution per student for the local transport costs, accommodation and food (partly supported by Erasmus+ funding. More details will be discussed at the information meeting).
In addition, students have to arrange and pay for their travel to Portugal, their visa (if required – non EU students) and insurances (universal health insurance with World coverage, Third part liability, travel insurance).
Disclaimer
Please note student safety is our top priority and as such field courses may be subject to alteration/cancellation.