Tropical Conservation and Development
The Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) Program offers an interdisciplinary
certificate and concentration program focused on integrative approaches
to conservation and development in Latin America and other tropical regions.
The program is open to students enrolled in Master's and Ph.D. programs
in participating academic units at the University of Florida (UF) who are
interested in acquiring the necessary interdisciplinary knowledge and technical
skills to pursue a career in conservation and development research and practice.
Program coursework includes social science theory, principles of tropical ecology, patterns and trends of tropical resource use and conservation, and research methods. TCD core courses also allow students to gain essential practical skills. Emphasis is placed on communication and presentation techniques, grant writing and fundraising, facilitation and conflict management, partparticipatory methods for research and project implementation, and project design, analysis and evaluation. Summer research, practitioner experiences, and field-based training programs provide learning opportunities outside the classroom.
Upon completion of the certificate or specialization, students have an in-depth understanding of the relationships between biological conservation, resource management, and the livelihood needs of rural communities and, they have the appropriate professional skills for a career in research, field practice, or both.
Eligibility
The TCD certificate and concentration are open to Master's and Ph.D. students enrolled in TCD's affiliate departments:
Agricultural Education and Communication
Agronomy
Anthropology
Botany
Center for Latin American Studies
Comparative Law
Food and Resource Economics
Geography
Geological Sciences
School of Forest Resources and Conservation
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
Political Science
Religion
Sociology
Soil and Water Science
Urban and Regional Planning
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
Women's Studies
Zoology
Certificate and Specialization Requirements
Center for Latin American Studies
The TCD curriculum specialization comprises 15 credit hours of the 33 total
hours required for the completion of the Master's in Latin American Studies
(MALAS) degree. The 15 credits in the specialization must include three
interdisciplinary core courses and one course each in tropical ecology and
social science. (Consult the curriculum list below for details.) Substitutions
can only be made with prior approval from TCD. MALAS students must also
write a thesis on a topic that fits within the broader context of biodiversity
conservation and/or rural development in the tropics. One member of the
student's supervisory committee must be a TCD affiliate faculty member.
The remaining 15 credits required for the MALAS degree must be selected from outside of the TCD curriculum specialization. Selection of these hours should be made in consultation with the student's faculty advisor and the Center's Graduate Coordinator.
Students who wish to pursue the MALAS degree should indicate their interest in the TCD concentration at the time of application to the degree program. MALAS/TCD applicants must also secure an adviser prior to admission to the program.
Other Affiliate Departments
To earn a certificate in TCD, Master's students from affiliate departments
(other than MALAS) must complete 12 credit hours of approved coursework
two of the interdisciplinary core courses and one course each in tropical
ecology and social science. Ph.D. students from affiliate departments can
earn a certificate by completing 15 credit hours of approved coursework
the three interdisciplinary core courses and one course each in tropical
ecology and social science. Students from natural science departments must
take the social science hours outside of their major department. Otherwise,
courses from the student's major can count toward program requirements.
(Consult the curriculum list below for details.) Substitutions can only
be made with prior approval from TCD.
To earn a specialization in TCD, students must fulfill the course requirements for the certificate (as explained above) and they must complete a thesis, dissertation or final project that fits within the broader context of biodiversity conservation and/or rural development in the tropics. One member of the student's supervisory committee must be a TCD affiliate faculty member from outside the student's major department.
Affiliate students can enroll in the TCD certificate or specialization program by meeting with the TCD Associate Director, Hannah Covert, after they are enrolled at UF.
During the last semester of their degree program, all TCD
students must submit the appropriate Verification of completed Requirements
Form for the Certificate 
or the Concentration
to the Associate Director.
Certificate and Specialization Curriculum
Interdisciplinary Core (6-9 credit hours)
MALAS students and Ph.D. students from affiliate departments must take
the following three courses. Master's students from affiliate departments
take any two of the following courses. Click here
for a description and schedule of the courses.
LAS 6290 Tropical Conservation and Development
LAS 6292 TCD Research Methods *
LAS 6291 Conservation and Development Skills
* LAS 6292 TCD Research Methods is the default course for
fulfilling the methods requirement. However, students who take two other
methods courses - one in natural science methods and one in social science
methods - may petition the TCD Executive Committee to substitute these two
courses for LAS 6292. The TCD Executive Committee will review the courses
proposed in order to determine their suitability for fulfilling the requirement
of methods in tropical conservation and development.
The petition to the Executive Committee should take the form of a
letter or e-mail message directed to Hannah
Covert, Associate Director, listing the two methods courses that were
taken or plan to be taken in place of LAS 6292. It is wise to seek approval
for the substitution prior to enrolling in the two alternate methods courses.
Tropical Ecology (3 credit hours)
All students take three credit hours from the following list:
AGR 5511 Crop Ecology
AGR 5277c Tropical Trop Production
AGR 6233c Tropical Pasture and Forage Science
ALS 5136 Agricultural Ecology Principles and Applications
BOT 5685 Tropical Botany
BOT 6935 Ecology and Natural History of the Tropics
BOT 6935 Principles of Ecosystem Ecology
BOT 6935 Seedling Ecology (1 credit hour)
BOT 6951/PCB 6347c Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach (8 credits;
off-campus OTS course)
EES 5305 Ecological and General Systems
FAS 6337c Fish Population Dynamics (4 credits)
FNR 5335 Agroforestry
FOR 6170 Tropical Forestry
PCB 5046 Advanced Ecology
PCB 6356c Ecosystems of the Tropics
PCB 6447c Community Ecology
SOS 5050 Soils for Environmental Professionals
SOS 5132 Tropical Soils Management
SOS 6932 Graduate Seminar in Tropical Soils (1 credit hour)
WIS 5481 Savanna Ecology and Management
WIS 5555 Conservation Biology
WIS 6934 Pattern and Process in Landscape Ecology
WIS 6452 Wildlife Ecology
WIS 6464 Wildlife Habitat Analysis
WIS 6575 Mammalian Carnivores (2 credit hours)
ZOO 6927 Ecological Basis of Tropical Conservation
Social Science (3 credit hours)
All students take three credit hours from the following list. Students
from natural science departments must take these hours outside of their
major department.
AEB 5167 Economic Analysis in Small Farm Livelihood Systems
AEB 6933 Ecological Economics
AEB 6453 Natural Resource Economics
AEB 6483 Seminar in Natural Resource and Environmental Economics
ANG 5266 Economic Anthropology
ANG 5303 Women and Development
ANG 5354 Anthropology of Modern Africa
ANG 5702 Anthropology and Development
ANG 6303 Gender and International Development
ANG 6930 Regional Analysis
ANT 5256 Rural Peoples in the Modern World
CPO 6036 Politics of Developing Societies
CPO 6077 Comparative Social Movements
FOR 5615 Forest Conservation and Management Issues and Policy
FOR 6934 Education for Sustainability
GEA 6419 Geography of South America
GEA 6466 Geography of Amazonia
GEA 6468 Resource Utilization and Conservation in Latin America
GEO 5809 Geography of World Agriculture
GEO 6938 Food and Agriculture in Africa
INR 6039 International Political Economy
INR 6352 International Environmental Relations
LAH 5934 History of Amazonia
PAD 6865 Development Administration
POL 6933 Peasants
PUP 6008 Public Policy Analysis
PUP 6015 Comparative Policy Analysis
REL 5xxx Native Religions of the Americas
REL 5195 Religion, Ethics and Nature
REL 6xxx Ethics and Natural Sciences
REL 6xxx Advanced Readings in Environmental Ethics
REL 6xxx Religion and Politics in the Americas
REL 6xxx Religions in Latin America
REL 6037 Nature in Western Religions
SYA 7933 Environment and Society
WIS 6578 Human Dimensions of Biological Conservation
WST 6348 Ecofeminism
WST 6935 Gender, Development, and Globalization
WST 6935 Gender, Environment, Agriculture and
Participation (also ALS 5905; off-campus course)
Affiliate Faculty
TCD draws on the participation of 78 faculty affiliates in 19 academic departments across the UF campus. Click here to see a list of affiliates.
Contact Information
319 Grinter Hall
P.O. Box 115530
Gainesville, FL 32611-5530
Tel: (352) 392-0375
Fax: (352) 392-7682
Graduate Advisor
Richmond F. Brown
rfbrown@latam.ufl.edu
Specialization Coordinator
Marianne Schmink
Schmink@latam.ufl.edu