ENV 767b () / 2025-2026

Tools for Conservation Project Design & Management

Credits: 3 Spring 2026: M,W, 2:30-3:50, Sage 41c

by appliation only

This course is limited to 12 students.  The application process for enrollment requires prior permission from the instructors.  Students requesting enrollment should submit a completed application form, found at the link listed here and also posted on the course Canvas site in the folder titled Files. Download the form, fill out the empty row, save & send via email to  amy.vedder@yale.eduand grant.peterson@yale.eduno later than 5 pm Dec 31.  If you are enrolled in a Yale school/department other than YSE for which registration decisions are required earlier, contact us and we can adapt to that schedule.  Application link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-r0fOCUmfeLcgz7LMSGYMfLtNxMletsKj6QvJ39KVkk/edit?usp=sharing


As wildlife and wildland conservation programs have multiplied and grown in size, conservation organizations have sought methods to improve strategic project planning, assessment of progress, cross-project comparison, learning of lessons, and transparency for donors. To address these challenges, major nonprofit organizations have collaboratively designed a set of decision-support tools for planning field projects and programs and for monitoring their progress, summarized in the “Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation” (http://cmp-openstandards.org). Use of these tools has allowed organizations to more clearly articulate strategies, define priority actions, critically assess success, manage adaptively, and derive lessons—all of which help to improve effectiveness. Students in this course explore a mutually reinforcing suite of these project tools: their underlying principles are introduced, students practice the techniques, and current case studies from field conservation are examined to explore tool utility. Students synthesize use of these design tools in a final project design focused on a single case study of their choice. The suite of decision-support tools covered includes situation (logic) models for project design, stakeholder assessments, threats and opportunities analysis, conservation target identification, and monitoring frameworks. Students gain experience in design of projects and their monitoring, as well as familiarity with budgeting.  Evaluation is based on class participation, regular assignments, and a final project design paper.
Limited to 12