Welcome to the CONS program's web site!
We hope you will find here answers to all of your questions about the program. If you do have additional questions, please feel free to contact the CONS program office, Dr. David Inouye (Director) or Dr. Jim Dietz (Associate Director). Information about the program is also summarized by this pdf file .

A major strength of our program is its geographical location, within easy commuting distance of Washington, D.C. The University of Maryland is unique in its proximity to both state and federal capitals, as well as many of the major non-government organizations (NGOs), multinational banks, and federal agencies that dominate national and international conservation efforts. These places are the source of most of the policy that now underlies conservation efforts, and have become the source of internships, seminar speakers, and job opportunities for most of our graduates.

Another strong point of our program is its interdisciplinary nature and curriculum. The best faculty from three colleges on campus teach our core courses in resource economics (AREC), the School of Public Affairs (PUAF; note that their program in environmental policy is ranked among the top ten in the country), and the Department of Biology (BIOL), and offer students a broad range of courses for their elective credits. The capstone core course in conservation problem-solving (CONS 680) puts the class in the role of a consulting team as they work for five clients on real-world problems. Our students interact with others interested in ecological economics in a weekly seminar open to all, and there is a Certificate Program in ecological economics. We also offer the option of a dual degree program with the Master in Public Policy degree (with a specialization in Environmental Policy); this 60-credit dual degree program can be completed in three years.

Graduates

As of August 2005 we have 153 alumni. CONS graduates have usually taken one of three different career paths. One group, consisting mostly of international students, has returned to their home countries where they have resumed teaching careers, begun work for NGOs, or done consulting work. This group includes faculty from Mexico and Venezuela, NGO workers in Panama, India, and Ecuador; it also included the first woman (Bernadetta Sugardjito) appointed Director of a national park in Indonesia (who met an untimely death in an accident en route to the park). One American graduate went on to a job as Park Development Officer in Botswana, working in a national park to develop environmental education programs with local village schools and conservation/community groups.

A second group of graduates has gone on to Ph.D. programs, in fields ranging from molecular genetics to resource economics to policy. Schools where our graduates have gone for this work include the University of Minnesota, Cornell University, Michigan State University, Washington University (St. Louis), North Carolina State University, and the University of Maryland. All of these students were offered financial support, and several received prestigious fellowships.

The largest group of CONS graduates has gone into the work force. Many are working for NGOs such as The Nature Conservancy, Biodiversity Support Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Friends of the National Zoo, Santa Barbara Zoo, International Crane Foundation, etc. Others are working in consulting firms, and a few are working in government agencies (e.g., Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service).

For more information on CONS graduates, please take a look at the Alumni Directory.

Publications about or from the CONS program

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 18:274-278.

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.

Inouye, D. W., and J. M. Dietz. 2000. Creating academically and practically trained graduate students. Conservation Biology 14(3):595-596.

Cannon, J. R., J. M. Dietz, and L. A. Dietz. 1996. Training conservation biologists in human interaction skills. Conservation Biology 10:1277-1282.

Touval, J. L., and J. M. Dietz. 1994. The problem of teaching conservation problem solving. Conservation Biology 8:902-904.