CONS is now a participant in the Peace Corps Master's International program! You can complete the CONS M.S. degree by receiving credit for your concurrent service as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

CONS student Raimundo Espinoza was awarded a two-year Coral Reef Management Fellowship by NOAA; he'll be working in Puerto Rico 2008-2010.

The Environmental Finance Center has posted a report on their website on Evaluating the Impacts of Ethanol prepared for them by the 2007 Problem Solving course.

CONS student Juan Pablo Galván is co-author on a paper in the October 2007 issue of Conservation Biology, about Invasive Rodent Eradication on Islands.

CONS student Nirmal Bhagabati writes about conservation research in India in the April 2007 issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, p. 123.

Paper in Environment, Development and Sustainability: Buntaine, Mark T, Renee B Mullen and James P Lassoie. 2006. "Human use and conservation planning in alpine areas of Northwestern Yunnan, China." Click here for the PDF.

Another paper in Conservation Biology co-authored by Matthew Steil, who was a student in the program at the time:

Wilkie, DS, GA Morelli, J Demmer, M Starkey, P Telfer and M Steil. 2006. Parks and people: assessing the human welfare effects of establishing protected areas for biodiversity conservation. Conservation Biology 20(1): 247-249. Click here for the PDF.

Look for these two papers from the CONS program in Conservation Biology.

Dietz, J. M., R. Aviram, S. Bickford, K. Douthwaite, A. Goodstine, J.-L. Izursa, S. Kavanaugh, K. MacCarthy, M. O'Herron, and K. Parker. 2004. Defining leadership in conservation: A view from the top. Conservation Biology 18(1):274-278. This paper was written by the CONS 608 seminar class, which interviewed leaders from the field of conservation biology.

Inouye, D. W., and C. Brewer. 2003. A case study of the program in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology at the University of Maryland. Conservation Biology 17:1204-1208.

And a recent alumni publication: Adams, Jonathan. 2006. The Future of the Wild: Radical Conservation for a Crowded World. Boston: Beacon Press.

"I chose the CONS program at UMD because it gave me the unique opportunity to study conservation biology while working in conservation for a U.S. government agency. Its interdisciplinary approach allowed me to construct a program that met my career goals and satisfied my interests."
- Woody Turner, Program Scientist, Biodiversity, Research Division, Office of Earth Science, NASA. CONS 2001

"I'm working now at NOAA fulltime in the National Ocean Service's Special Projects Office, continuing the same work I did as a Knauss Fellow.  My experience here makes me more fully appreciate the logic of CONS. There is a great and urgent need for people who can traverse between the worlds of science and public policy/economics. In the climate change arena in particular, the yawning gulf between these worlds -- and between both and the general public -- has enormous and tragic consequences."
- Tom Smerling, CONS 2008

"This fabulous program makes such a difference for so many up-and-coming conservationists. We will always need more interdisciplinary problem-solvers and big-picture thinkers in the conservation arena."
- Roxanne Bogart, Division of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. CONS 1996

“Seleccionar un programa de maestría estando en otro país no es una tarea fácil. Para tomar mi decisión de ingresar al programa CONS tuve en cuenta no sólo la calidad académica y que el programa cumpliera mis expectativas, también quería encontrar un ambiente cálido, amable y de apoyo. En el programa CONS he encontrado todo eso y más. El enfoque multidisciplinario del programa es una de sus principales fortalezas, y el hecho de que la Universidad de Maryland esté tan convenientemente localizada cerca de Washington D.C. ofrece un beneficio adicional, pues facilita el contacto directo con diferentes instituciones y ONGs relacionadas con la conservación y el desarrollo ”
- Liza Karina Agudelo (Colombia), Becaria Fulbright 2002-2004

"I came to CONS from abroad, knowing very little about the North American way of life and expecting great things about the program. My country is one with plenty of natural resources and great poverty, conditions that force biologists to deal with conservation with a sustainable development approach because it is impossible to prohibit the use of wildlife for people that depend directly from it. CONS introduced me to public policy and economics, two field that are essential to solve problems related to the depletion of resources due to extensive use. I had the opportunity of having excellent professors and the advantage of choosing from an extensive list of courses that suited my needs. I also enjoyed learning in the company of many people that shared my interests and that came from very different backgrounds.  Attending the University of Maryland was an experience that I would gladly repeat; I couldn´t have chosen a better environment to learn not only about conservation but about Norh American culture and I have great appreciation for Fulbright and the CONS program, for giving me such opportunity.    I am now head of the Wildlife Department of Guatemala and I´m still learning about conservation and sustainable development but I feel very confident about my background and I know that I chose just the right masters program.”
- Maria Mercedes Lopez-Selva, Fulbright Fellow from Guatemala, 2000-2002

“Si lo que buscas es un programa con una sólida formación en conservación y desarrollo sostenible, en una universidad con una variada y multidisciplinaría oferta de materias complementarias, que además, te permita hacer practicas y relacionarte directamente con las organizaciones que juegan un papel protagónico en el campo de la conservación, entonces no dudes en tomar muy en cuenta al programa CONS. Además de todo ello, aquí encontré un ambiente familiar y amistoso y la posibilidad de tomar materias con un enfoque adaptado a la realidad de Latinoamérica. ”
- Roberto Mobarec (Bolivia), Becario Fulbright-Laspau-OEA (mención en ecología) 2003-2005