Tarleton State University will strengthen wildlife conservation capacity in Southern Africa through a new collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), expanding its international research and educational impact.
Dr. T. Wayne Schwertner, professor in Tarleton State’s Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources, will lead WildCRU’s new Collaborative Conservation Training (CCT) Program. Supported by a generous private donation and Tarleton State’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the five-year, $2.1 million initiative will provide accessible, high-quality professional training to conservation practitioners working in some of the world’s most biodiverse regions.
“One thing that truly sets Tarleton State’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources apart is our strong international presence,” Schwertner said. “This project builds upon our existing relationship with the University of Oxford and WildCRU. It also further leverages Tarleton State’s long history of international collaboration, research and student engagement in southern Africa.”
Beginning in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, including Botswana and Zimbabwe, the program will work with local stakeholders to identify training needs. Those initiatives will inform the development and delivery of Oxford-badged courses covering topics such as wildlife monitoring, ecological research, data analysis, conservation planning, community engagement, leadership, communication and project management.
Training will be delivered through African universities and research centers as well as online via Oxford’s Department for Biology, creating greater access to specialized instruction without requiring practitioners to travel abroad for extended periods. Over its first five years, the program aims to serve more than 1,200 participants in five Southern African countries: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The collaboration builds on Tarleton State’s longstanding engagement in Southern Africa. Since 2012, more than 100 Tarleton State students have participated in the Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources’ summer wildlife field school, one of the university’s longest-running study abroad programs. Additionally, 15 student researchers have conducted undergraduate, masters and doctoral research in the region during this time. Multiple Tarleton State faculty and graduate students also maintain active research programs there.
By combining Tarleton State’s regional experience with WildCRU’s global conservation expertise, the CCT Program will develop a scalable model for locally led conservation training while creating new opportunities for collaboration among Tarleton State faculty and students, Oxford researchers and conservation professionals worldwide. In addition to Southern Africa, plans are already underway to expand the program to biodiversity hotspots in South America and East Africa.