Program Overview

Protected areas cover more than 15% of global land mass, 20% of Australian land, and 40% of Tasmania. Effective conservation and management of this significant land estate is central to achieving global conservation and sustainable development goals.  Conservation professionals need to be trained in aspects of governance, planning and management in order to ensure the protected area estate effectively conserves nature and natures benefits to people.

This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills required by contemporary protected area conservation professionals working in middle or senior governance or management roles. This course covers governance, planning and management practice in government, private and community-based protected areas, as well as broader landscape contexts. Terrestrial, freshwater and marine protected areas are addressed. You will apply skills in governance, planning, and management to address complex conservation problems across landscapes and within protected areas.

The course has been designed to meet international competencies for protected area planners specified by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, with a particular focus on middle and senior governance and management roles. The structure of the degree ensures that graduates have the full range of required skills for protected area planners and managers in senior roles. Experiential learning is facilitated through field components within the core units, which involve practical experience of working world activities in natural environments. Students are offered further opportunity to customize their learning through an elective facilitating exploration of conservation topics in Tasmania as well as a capstone professional placement unit in the final year of study.

Tasmania is the ideal place to undertake a degree focused on protected area governance and management. Within half an hour from the Sandy Bay campus, we access marine, coastal, heathland, wetland, grassland, woodland, dry eucalypt, wet eucalypt, rainforest, subalpine and alpine natural environments, as well as urban nature. The Tasmanian world heritage recognised wilderness is little over an hour’s drive away. Tasmanian nature is so distinctive and important that half the State is in reserves and approximately half the area of these reserves is world heritage. This makes it an imminent destination to study conservation in protected areas. You will be helped in your learning by academic staff with international reputations in their subject areas.