Ecological Monitoring (ENGLISH) mooc-conservation

About this course

Ecological monitoring is a key aspect of protected areas management. Completing the 4 units will set the foundation to understanding what ecological monitoring is, and how it works. EM is a key component of adaptive management within a protected area, it is based on the surveillance of the environment, and consists in systematically collecting information over time, the aim being to answer one or more specific questions. It can also be implemented to compare data collected in the PA against predetermined standards in relation to a known standard, for example, a baseline condition (number of animals of a species at the beginning of the management cycle) or a desired state (what would be the optimum state of vegetation in absence of pressure?). Ecological monitoring calls on precise knowledge, it uses established techniques and requires specific data treatment.