Students’ Case Studies for IUCN on Responding to Climate Change in Managing Protected Areas

At the University of Illinois, I worked with the Modules to create an experience for students which would also highlight climate change impacts on protected areas.  In addition to materials from the Modules and IUCN publications, the lessons included lectures, readings and videos on protected areas programs related to climate change in the U.S., Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Vietnam, Canada and the U.K.  Moreover, I inserted original interviews with experts currently working to protect areas from the World Bank, Field Museum of Chicago, National Trust, World Wildlife Fund, and Conservation International.  Finally, the course challenged students to research and analyze the legal framework and climate threats for a specific protected area. 

This focus for the final papers gave the students insights into the importance of protected areas; good governance and management for protected areas; challenges to sustainable development; and the threats of climate change.  The students produced strong original research, which I found not only gratifying but also quite informative.  The fifteen case studies selected for addition to the Modules’ website address a wide range of terrestrial and marine protected areas around the world, including three transboundary parks.  The students were excited to contribute to this global instructional effort.  (Of course, as products of student online research, the case studies may have shortcomings and errors.)

The collection of case studies demonstrates the huge impacts of climate change on diverse protected areas, as well as the range of responses in managing the natural resources and human uses.  For example, the Module on transboundary parks now offers case studies on threats from climate change and cooperative or inadequate responses in Oulanka-Paanajarvi (Finland/Russia), Iguazu (Argentina/Brazil/Paraguay), and Glacier (U.S./Canada) parks.  As another illustration, climate change threats to forests and responses in management practices can be compared across Sagarmatha Park (Nepal), Bladen Nature Reserve (Belize), the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (Papua New Guinea), Big Sur State Parks (U.S.), and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (U.S.).  Furthermore, the Module on legal considerations for marine protected areas now provides case studies for comparing legal protections in the Philippines’ Tubbataha Reefs and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. 

Other graduate students at the University of Illinois last semester developed original case studies on climate change and public health.  In a new course targeting community health students, several research papers explored various disruptions to ecosystem services from climate change.  The case studies included recommendations on designing early warning systems for flooding in Nigeria, integrating in India’s secondary schools studies of the climate change impacts on infectious diseases, changing cook stoves in three countries, and addressing violence linked to heat waves and droughts.

I would be happy to provide on request the syllabi for these courses and case studies. 

• Warren G. Lavey
• lavey@illinois.edu