Conservation Biology

Join the African Studies and Conservation Biology Departments for a lecture by Bill Weber and Amy Vedder, "Out of Africa, Into the Adirondacks: A Conservation Journey."

Bill and Amy live in the Adirondacks and have extensive experience working on conservation issues in Rwanda and the Adirondacks, among other places.  Both served as directors of the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Africa Program for many years.  Amy oversaw the design, implementation, and assessment of field projects and conservation programs in twenty African countries.  Bill created a Congo Basin Program that helped establish more than twenty new protected areas, produced the first reliable data on forest elephant and great ape populations, and developed effective alliances with local communities and commercial timber companies.  Bill later served as WCS North America Program director, focusing on wildlife recovery, ecological connectivity, energy development, and community-based conservation.  He is currently acting director of Two Countries One Forest, an organization dedicated to transboundary conservation in the Northern Appalachian forest region of southeastern Canada and the northeastern U.S.  Amy has carried out extensive field research among mountain gorillas in Rwanda; more broadly, she is an expert in tropical forest ecology, specializing in the Central African rainforest.  She has served as director of the Living Landscapes Program, where she oversaw the implementation of a science-based approach to conserving wildlife and wildlands outside of protected areas.  She is currently Vice-President of WCS.  Their co-authored book, In the Kingdom of Gorillas: The Quest to Save Rwanda's Mountain Gorillas, is available for sale in Brewer Bookstore.

Funding for this lecture is provided by the Mellon Environmental Education Initiative.

Join the African Student Union, the Women's Resource Center, the Black Student Union, and the African Studies, Biology and Environmental Studies departments and the Chaplain's Office for a service in memory of Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai (born April 1, 1940-Died September 25, 2011), including a movie called "Taking Root."

Wangari Maathai was born in Kenya and was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She established the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in 1977. GBM has been responsible for bringing the environmental agenda into mainstream politics. Dr. Maathai served on several boards including the Prince Albert of Monaco Foundation, the Oslo Award, and The Chirac Foundation. She and the GBM received the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2005, she was named by Forbes magazine as one of the 100 most influential women in the world. Until her recent death, she also served as the UN Goodwill Ambassador of the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem and Co-Chair of the Congo Basin Fund.

Join, Dr. Bill Romey of SUNY-Potsdam for his lecture, "Predicting How Flocks of Geese Fly Around Obstacles and Fish Schools Find their Way." 

The Holy Grail of animal movement studies is to understand how individual movement rules can produce complex emergent properties in flocks, swarms, and schools.  These emergent properties sometimes show a "collective intelligence" that is not seen at lower levels.  Dr. Romey will present some of his empirical work on the group dynamics of a model organism, whirligigs.  Then he will demonstrate how his simulation models can help us understand how fish and birds move around obstacles and how crowds of panicked people move out of buildings.  

Sponsored by the biology department.

Finding Symmetry: A short documentary on human-wildlife conflicts and conservation issues among the Maasai people in Southwestern Kenya. Increasing human populations and changing land uses are causing stress on East African wildlife. Simultaneously, local communities need resources and income to survive. Direct competition between wildlife and human populations is increasing. With development, tourism, and wildlife conflicts, the lifestyle of Maasai people is changing. Can we find a symmetry where both sides can live equally? 

You are cordially invited to see the showing of senior Katie Oram's short film Finding Symmetry which is one of the outcomes of Katie's senior-year research project in Conservation Biology/African Studies.  The screening will last about 30 minutes - 10 minutes for an introduction by Katie followed by the 20 minute film.  

Come visit EAO this week in the Student Center during lunch time. Sign the student petition to support St. Lawrence University's Climate Action Plan to be carbon neutral by 2040. The Plan gets presented to the Board of Trustees later this month, help us show we care about our footprint.

Join Dr. Kelly Zamudio of Cornell University for her lecture, "Field biology and conservation genetics: organisms, landscapes, and global change"

Abstract: The world is a rapidly-changing landscape, and the types and severity of threats to biodiversity are also increasing rapidly. Three cases studies will be presented that use genetic diversity (at the level of individuals, population, and lineages) to address issues in conservation biology. These examples demonstrate that genetic analyses have an important role to play in conservation, but also that our power to predict and mitigate effects on biodiversity is increased by combining genetics with other conservation approaches.

Refreshments will be served.