Abstract
The future viability of wildlife conservation in the United States hinges on the field's ability to adapt to changing social–ecological conditions including shifting societal values and mounting pressures to engage a greater diversity of voices in decision-making. As wildlife agencies respond to calls to broaden their relevance amid such changes, there is a need to consider the role of university education programs in preparing future wildlife professionals to meet the challenges of this new era. We identify four core areas of competency (technical, leadership, administrative, and adaptive) for universities to consider integrating into new or existing programs to support the emergent needs of the wildlife profession. We focus on undergraduate degree programs as a critical foundation for wildlife-related careers but also recommend consideration of these skill sets in other areas of professional development including graduate education. Our approach acknowledges the importance of building on traditional areas of expertise such as biology and expanding them to include more interdisciplinary training in areas such as systems approaches, the social sciences, and organizational change. We conclude with recommendations for implementation, highlighting several successful examples, for universities to contemplate as they explore programmatic changes to help build greater capacity for wildlife conservation in the 21st century.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e610 |
| Journal | Conservation Science and Practice |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2022 |
Funding
Skills in (also drawing upon leadership), , and are additional components of administrative capacity. While individuals starting their careers often will not be in supervisory roles or positions that require writing budgets or managing large projects, requirements of the job can include these demands as their careers progress. It also may be difficult for early‐career professionals to relate to these administrative tasks that can seem more mundane or outside the scope of what motivated them to enter the field, but the reality is that a functioning agency needs employees who can manage the day‐to‐day operations of the organization. Business management skills are applicable here, ranging, for example, from budgeting, obtaining, and managing grants to advocating for funding support from legislatures, government and nongovernmental organizations, and citizens. Greater emphasis on training in such areas as grant writing, fundraising, and report writing could help both professionals and the organizations they work for be more successful in their conservation endeavors. Given the increasing financial constraints of conservation efforts, particularly within the public sector, skills are also needed in how to plan and manage cost‐effective projects. employee supervision project management budgeting
Keywords
- capacity building
- conservation leadership
- social–ecological systems
- university education
- wildlife agencies