Teaching Adaptive Management at the University of Los Andes in Venezuela

Story from Eulogio Chacón Moreno, CCNet coach and professor at Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Ecológicas (ICAE), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela.

Landscape Ecology and Conservation are some of the main research areas of Postgraduate studies in Tropical Ecology (PET) at the Institute of Environmental and Ecological Sciences (ICAE), University of Los Andes, Venezuela. Under the postgraduate studies (PET), we have trained more than 60 people in four courses, in conservation strategies and climate adaptability, using the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation framework (OS), the MIRADI software, adaptive management, and ecosystem approach as main conceptual and methodological tools.

One of the objectives of this training process, besides the development and learning of the tools, has been to promote the inclusion of adaptive management in the participant´s research work, actions and strategies based on the application of OS.

In addition, using conservation planning tools, we have reviewed aspects related to climate change in order to define strategies for biodiversity conservation and the adaptation of communities to that change. With this methodological innovation, it has been possible to train generations of professionals to work with communities, in a proposal that integrates climate change adaptation, by also valuing and conserving biological diversity.