Spring 2013 Costa Rica Maymester: BIO 337: Land Use Issues in Rainforest Conservation Spring semester registration: All students: LA 119 unique 29995 W 3-5 pm GAR 0.128 Plan II majors: TC 357 unique 43130 Other majors: BIO 337 unique 49855 Instructor - Dr. Ruth Buskirk, [email protected], 512-471-7793 Office: BIO 316A, MW 2-3, Tu 10-12 Course Objectives: The Maymester course is designed to expose students to many of the concerns that must be addressed when establishing public policy regarding conservation and sustainable land use, both locally and at a national scale, in a country renown for its biodiversity and its extensive system of public and private reserves. We welcome students with broad academic interests, and a background including the prerequisite biology course, who can collaborate in group work and who are willing to walk on muddy trails and tolerate mosquitoes and high humidity. During the course, students will gain a real-world and applied understanding of ecological research, agricultural and ecotourism development, and the complexity of conservation issues in a field setting. Why Costa Rica? Costa Rica is known worldwide for its conservation efforts with more than 25% of its land under protection, thus safeguarding more than 5% of the entire world's biodiversity in an area about the size of West Virginia. This phenomenon has attracted millions of tourists to Costa Rica's parks and reserves, and tourism can strain the park system and the neighboring human communities. Agricultural practices are changing as Costa Ricans, on small farms as well as national and multi-national corporations, work to achieve economic growth and sustainable practices. The overall socio-political issue is to find tenable land use plans that maintain the goals of conservation and sustainability. Costa Rica is a unique setting for biological field studies. The country has a long history of support for visiting scholars and students and for development of local scientists and agricultural experts. Costa Rica is a model for collaboration between governmental and private programs in conservation. As students will see, in this small country there is a unique juxtaposition of remote wilderness and developed areas, complete with the infrastructure for their instruction, transportation, services and safety. Two required Study Abroad Orientation sessions (1) Pre-departure Orientation session, in WCH 1.120 either 4-5 pm on Jan 17 or 6-7 pm on Feb 7, and (2) Health & Safety Orientation, either 4-5 pm on April 25 in WCH 1.120 or 12-1pm on April 26 in UTC 2.102 Course Activities in Costa Rica: Arrival in San Jose -Thursday, May 23, 2013 Last night of the course - Sunday, June 23, 2013 (flights out as early as Monday June 24, or later.) Throughout the course, individual students will keep a journal, prepare written briefs, and give short oral presentations on natural history and tropical ecology and on questions regarding sustainable conservation. The topics will consider the central question of the juxtaposed ecotourism and agricultural economies of Costa Rica. We expect all participants to communicate with classmates and instructors and to support group-learning activities in novel, unconventional (and sometimes difficult) situations. We expect all to maintain ethical and behavioral standards and to follow guidelines and requirements of The University of Texas at Austin and the Study Abroad Office. Basis of the letter grade will be 20% active participation in course activities, 20% field exercises including question and data activities, 20% individual write-ups including summary statements, conservation recommendations and a reflection due before departing Costa Rica, and 40% the group integrative research project at Monteverde and team presentation. Learning Outcomes: After this Maymester experience, students should be able to: -describe points of view and economic interests of different stakeholders in aspects of land use and conservation -perform observations, ask specific questions, and design an experiment to test a possible explanation for the observations -recognize and distinguish different forest habitats and types of land use in Costa Rica -know some natural history about traopical plants and animals and give examples of their ecological interactions -work in a team to document, prioritize and present current issues concerning a region, and be able to apply these approaches to different research problems elsewhere/later Highlights of the course itinerary in Costa Rica: May 23 – arrival in San Jose, two nights at the Hotel Cacts May 26 – May 30 at Sirena Field Station, Corcovado National Park, on the Osa Peninsula May 30 – June 10 a bus trip that includes: Carara National Park, Four nights in Liberia with day trips to Santa Rosa National Park, Rincon de la Vieja National Park (volcano permitting); two nights in La Fortuna near Volcan Arenal, and a day trip to Caño Negro preserve; a visit to La Selva Biological Station in Sarapiqui; two nights at Cahuita on the Caribbean coast, Cahuita National Park (beach) June 10-13. Four days at CATIE, Central American Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, near Turrialba June 14-22. Monteverde, Costa Rica; explore issues; prepare group presentation. June 23. Return to San Jose, program farewell. Students should expect to get wet, work in close quarters with a large group, interact with local residents, see beautiful rainforests and beaches (but this is not a vacation!) and see amazing flora and wildlife (but this is not a zoo!), and get to know and work well with all the great people in our group. Students should NOT expect to be able to phone home (but we keep in touch via email and a course blog), have a leisurely vacation (but we will have a few ‘days off’), or have clean/dry clothes all of the time. .